Restricted
by Nozama
Summary: Deviating from manga ch 282. Tsunade loses her argument against the elders: Naruto is restricted to Konoha. A curse evolves into a blessing in disguise as Naruto grows close with an old friend and mentors a new one. Sai & Danzou don't exist. KibaNaru.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I spent a lot of time thinking up a disclaimer that said everything except what it's supposed to, but forget it - I don't own Naruto or any rights related to it._

A semi-brief and hopefully-one-time-only author's note:

_This is not mandatory reading; I just want to offer a short summary of my style and purpose of writing for those wondering what they're getting into. If you're not interested, skip thirteen paragraphs down to the "Chapter 1" heading._

_This is my first real attempt at writing fiction. Sure, I've done some long-forgotten school assignments and typed up random ideas at random times, but I've conceived nothing that could remotely qualify as a story. However, being a messageboard junkie, it's far from my first attempt at writing in general, and I must give special props to my two good English-major friends who have drilled and instilled proper speech and grammar into my every spoken and written word through an intense and consistent gestapo-esque regime of berating and humiliation. I love you, J and P. Now, about this story._

_I write in English. I don't know Japanese, and even if I did, I wouldn't scatter fragments of it amidst a full-on English story. Expect every Japanese word with an adequate English translation to use it. I often find the insertion of random phrases to make a statement like "oh look what I learned on the internet, GO ME!", which can be distracting, especially when mandatory translation notes are located at the bottom of a lengthy web page._

_My story is primarily about relations. Why relations? A few reasons._

_1) I have an odd habit of creating what I would never enjoy otherwise. I love large epic movies, yet I'm planning a script about a runaway child in TV episode format. I love huge, orchestral music with hundreds of instruments, yet I write beep-bop electronica songs. I love intense mystery and surrealism in my stories, yet here I am once again, writing something I'd probably never read._

_2) I've recently discovered the "foreign" section of my libraries, which led to the discovery that good drama does in fact exist. For me, it was a huge change from the plot-driven Hollywood stories with "mandatory character development time because we have to meet minimum character development requirements" to the character-driven foreign stories with occasional plot happenings to further the characters' development. I was intrigued by how films about people simply being people and "life as-is" could be so effective and engrossing when the plot could be summarized in two sentences, and I was motivated to try something similar._

_3) I'm not a fan of the Naruto manga's Season 2 so far. There are very few traces of the ingenuity that drew me to the story during its early years. The story has become straightforward and predictable, concepts are rehashed, clichés abound, Naruto's "growth" is sorely disappointing, etc. etc. Most of all, the characters who had such great development, deep background stories and unique personalities and abilities have thus-far been reduced to mere chumps or plot devices to make room for sporadic power-fest fights and generic dialogues. To compensate, I felt the need to go to the opposite extreme._

_As a character-driven story, I try to take the backseat as much as possible, providing only the minimal settings for the characters' interactions to take place in. Rather than tell the reader things, I want to show them through the thoughts and speech of the characters. Ideally, dialogues will be able to carrythemselves in tone and character action/expression without loads of qualifying side-descriptions._

_Out-of-character-ness: There will be differences between the Season 1 and current-time personas of the characters. The time skip allowed for that, though I don't believe the current Season 2 took full (or good) advantage of that. Big changes can happen in three years. I suppose that, by default, any fan fiction will have its characters out-of-character because the writer isn't following the original plot or setting by the original author. However, they can still be in-character given their new circumstances. Plus, if an event occurs where the character's lifestyle is dramatically changed, why would the character have the same personality? I have some reasons. Will they be legitimate? See for yourself._

_Are some overly mature? Compared to teens today, perhaps. But in centuries past, lifestyles were simpler and children were ready to take on their own lives at even getting married by the average age of 14, some before 12. This applies to the Naruto-verse as well. Most have been full-fledged ninja since 12. I parallel their development after 4 years as ninja to that of 4 years in the military. I draw from personal experience of 4 years of high school and 4 years of armed forces service._

_As the "NaruKiba" in the description implies, this story could probably be qualified as "shounen ai". However, I would hesitate to call it "yaoi". I find most yaoi/yuri stories to not be thought out very much beyond "OMG they're so HAWT LET'S MAKE THEM SCREW!" Restricted is the antithesis to those stories. There will probably be no lemons, limes, or fruits of any kind. The story is about characters and their development through trials and tribulations, not finding the quickest way to get to the smut, and while it is primarily focused around Naruto and Kiba, it is also about all the other characters that play into their lives and relationships as well. So now you know what you're in for._

_Also, I hate manga-retypes as much as the next person, but modifying and extending three manga scenes was necessary to get this story going. I promise it's all original after the first three scenes._

_And finally, I won't reply to reviews in the story space. I will, however, make a clarification note if multiple reviews require it. I know of stories deleted for review responses, so if you want to carry on a conversation, email me or ask me to email you. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy your read._

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Style Index:

"Spoken Dialogue."

'Thoughts.'

_Flashback, occasional emphasis in dialogue or thoughts._

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**Restricted: Chapter 1**

_Published: March 25, 2006_

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Tsunade entered the meeting room and sat across from the Leaf village elders. "You wished to speak with me?"

Koharu fidgeted slightly before answering. She was well aware of Tsunade's relationship with Naruto and wasn't comfortable presenting the elders' decision. "Truth be told, we've discussed the issue with Shizune beforehand..." She glanced at Homura, who sat at her left.

"Do not assign Uzumaki Naruto any more missions that have the possibility of engaging him with Akatsuki," he stated, more concerned for the safety of the village than for Tsunade's feelings. "Furthermore, from now on you will group Naruto with ninja of even greater skill, have him conduct missions in a four-man-cell, and improve our supervision and protection of him. Additionally, it is best to significantly limit the number of missions assigned to him, as well as restrict his area of activity."

Tsunade scowled. 'I knew it wouldn't be long before the village committee started interfering with Naruto's life. If I want to stop that, I can't even show a moment of hesitation that would allow them to get a foot in the door. React first, defend later.' She slammed her fist onto the table that separated the elders from her. "That's not happening!"

'As expected,' Homura sighed and scratched his brow. "Tsunade, Naruto is not just any kid. He's a jinchuuriki. It would be most logical to keep him under supervision and prevent him from leaving the village. It may not seem like it, but we are keeping his best interests in mind."

"While I'm all for having him act in a four man cell, we should not be imposing such severe restrictions on Naruto. Even if we keep him within the village, Akatsuki will eventually come after him, in the same way they did with the Sand village incident. In that event, the village will also end up being exposed to danger. As long as Naruto is on the move, it will be more difficult for them to find out what he is doing. And besides, Naruto has great talent to begin with. He is a shinobi destined to become a great asset of Leaf."

"Your argument lacks content, Tsunade. You speak from emotion, not rationality. Hardly becoming of a ninja, let alone a Hokage. Think: what happens when Akatsuki finally locates Naruto? Would it not be wiser to trust an entire ninja village to fight off his pursuers than to trust that his pursuers, a union of the most dangerous criminals alive, will be forever outwitted and evaded by a mere genin? The Kyuubi is the strongest of all Bijuu and is no doubt Akatsuki's top priority. When they want him, they will find him, and when that time comes, it would be wisest to have all the support possible to ensure their failure in abducting Naruto. Believe that the Kyuubi under the control of a single Akatsuki member is a far greater threat than the whole of Akatsuki as it is now, and reconsider your position on Naruto's activity."

"Naruto will... never be done in! I have faith in him... from seeing him in battle, even years ago... he fights with a passion I've rarely seen in all my years. I stand by my initial judgment. If Leaf village... if the Country of Fire were to face a crisis because of that judgment... Then I'll just protect both of them with my own life. As the Fifth Hokage."

"That will be unnecessary. While Naruto may win a battle of spirits, he is far from winning a battle of skill, and here we fight against flesh and blood, not spirits and wills. If he truly will not be done in, he can prove that here, under the added protection and supervision of the Leaf. Keep your stubborn insistence and know that if Kyuubi falls into Akatsuki's control while Naruto is absent from the village, you will bear the responsibility of all resulting havoc wreaked and be held accountable accordingly. Tsunade, sometimes things get worse before they get better. I sympathize with your concern regarding potential collateral damage in the village, but such a minor setback now may be necessary to prevent utter decimation later. We cannot underestimate the lengths Akatsuki will go to in order to attain Kyuubi. We need every available ninja ready to prevent such an occurrence. Even then, you may still have the opportunity to sacrifice yourself."

"Tsunade," Koharu spoke, "I understand your relationship with Naruto and your desire to protect an individual who means more to you than all the unfamiliar faces of Leaf combined, but remember all those people ultimately depend on you for their well-being and survival as much as Naruto does. You have to act with majority interest in mind. It is your job, but it should also be your heart. Please don't be too selfish in your decisions. There are plenty worthwhile activities for Naruto to pursue within the village. Try not to think of it as a hindrance to him; rather, an opportunity for new growth in different areas."

"Such as...?"

"The academy's student mentoring program is having its initial presentation tomorrow. This will be an opportunity unlike any he has had previously. I do not know how it may grow him, but you must. Furthermore, there he would be surrounded by the largest concentration of moderate to high level ninja in the village."

Tsunade considered the possibilities. 'The currently planned mission to the Bridge of Heaven and Earth will likely involve Akatsuki or Orochimaru. Kyuubi falling into the hands of either would be greatly devastating. At this point, it is indeed my responsibility to either put Naruto up for grabs or do everything possible to prevent it. Nothing these two have said lessens my faith in Naruto, but neither Akatsuki nor Orochimaru are to be underestimated. Naruto may fight passionately, but he's still far from an S-class ninja, as are all others available to accompany him. And, though it wasn't told to anyone but me, Naruto's transformation into two-tailed fox form does force me to question his current stability in dealing with enemies against whom he harbors intense hatred. A loss of control so great, and perhaps so often, that a seal was required and developed to suppress that loss is a threat that needs much further examination. I'll have to discuss this previously unheard-of development with Jiraiya whenever he returns from his latest spying escapade. On the other hand, Naruto's presence in Leaf does ensure the lowest probability of abduction. I don't like the thought of a repeat of the Sand incident at Leaf, but even worse would be Naruto's abduction. As for Naruto himself, the academy program might just provide him with the next logical step in his development as a ninja as well as a person. That is, if he can accept the circumstances leading to his recommendation.'

"We can allow you some time to think things over and resolve this later," Koharu offered.

"No thanks, I'll concede with your judgment... under one condition."

"Go on."

"As I was to bear the responsibility of 'all resulting havoc wreaked' if Naruto were abducted according to my decision, so shall you bear the responsibility of all 'collateral damage' according to your decision."

"Agreed," Homura replied without a moments' thought. "Koharu?"

Koharu hesitated before nodding.

"Then we have an agreement..." Tsunade stood and turned to leave "...for now," she added before walking toward the door. 'Now, how to break this to Naruto...'

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Continuing his now-futile search for new team members, Naruto ran aimlessly around the village streets in pursuit of the acquaintances he hadn't yet seen during his first brief return to Leaf. Along his way, he noticed a few standard glares, a few looks of surprise disappointment, and few looks of curiosity and intrigue, mostly from girls of a similar age, though the connection didn't register with him. 'Yep, not much has changed at all...' he noted, veering down a fenced-off alleyway with a single tree on his right side. 'Still, who do I even want to join? Iforget who was worth what, and now they're all probably way stronger too. Hehe, I can't wait to fight some people!' Naruto's face lit up in glee as he imagined himself standing victorious over a thoroughly beaten and decimated pile of his former classmates. A soft and deep voice soon called him back to reality.

"It's been a long time, Naruto."

Naruto spun around to see a pair of sunglasses-covered eyes peeking out from a bundle of clothes standing under the tree. "Who are you?"

"It's me..."

"Yeah, but who are you!"

"Even if it's been a while, you should at least remember the face of a friend. The reason being... that if you don't, it's painful for the person who called you out."

"That annoying style of speech... could you possibly be... Shino?"

"You finally recognized me."

"Hey, if you're covering your face that much, nobody's going to recognize you! Idiot! What are you doing here anyway?"

"Waiting."

"...For?"

"People."

"Who?"

"Teammates."

"Why?"

"Reasons."

"Erk..." Naruto's eyebrow twitched in frustration at the blatantly evasive string of answers that could serve no other purpose than irritating him. Soon, a frightening thought dawned on him. "Wait a second... you haven't... developed a sense of humor, have you?"

"Guh..." Naruto was debating the most effective and entertaining way of thrashing Shino into oblivion when a thud from behind caught his attention. He looked back to see a brown-haired boy clad in black pants and a black jacket, cheeks painted with red fangs, riding toward him atop a giant dog.

"K... Kiba?"

"Whoa! Naruto, it really was you!"

Naruto's face twisted in confusion.

"The smell, I mean."

"Ugh, _that's_ how you recognized me?" Not to be outdone, Naruto decided to keep on top of things. "Hmph, well, that's how I could tell you too!"

"Hah! Don't tell me you think your sense of smell has the slightest chance of rivaling mine."

"Nope, you stink as bad as ever!"

Kiba glared and the dog barked in irritation.

"Forget that, what's with..." Realization hit Naruto as he pointed toward the dog. "Wait, is that..."

"That's Akamaru, you dolt!"

"Hey! I didn't know dogs were supposed to get that much bigger so fast!"

"Bigger?"

Naruto blanched. Was Shino contagious? "Uh, it used to ride on your head, remember?"

"Oh, true. Well I'm always with _him_, so I never really noticed." Kiba hopped off Akamaru and stood next to Naruto. "Speaking of bigger, you've gotten huge, haven't you? Wow!"

"Hehe, yep!" Naruto knew what Kiba meant, but decided to have some fun with him and flaunt his other 'huge'-ness. He pulled his right sleeve up to his shoulder and revealed a study in fine detail; a forearm that widened immensely from deceptively small wrists, leading up to a biceps that peaked like a large kiwi and triceps that sported the coveted horseshoe shape, all writhing like copulating serpents beneath his skin as he wiggled his hand and fingers. "Ero-sennin was merciless... and rude! It was only a few weeks after we left until he said he'd just train me in brute strength cause I had no capacity for stealth," he pouted. "I still think he was making an excuse to torture me all day, but it did stuff so now it's fine!" he grinned and pulled his sleeve back down. "I'm surprised you could tell though, I didn't think my new clothes were that tight."

Kiba let go of a breath he didn't realize he was holding and responded before his delay became suspicious. "Umm... I didn't mean like that, but, hey, cool." He glanced to Shino standing silently at his right. Even though Shino was harder to read than ever, his teammates had developed a sixth sense when it came to interpreting his body language, and Kiba could feel the smug grin emanating from beneath the bundle of clothes, as if challenging him to reclaim his rank. 'Tch, and after I'd finally established and secured my spot as the brute, this dolt comes out of nowhere and shows me up once again. I'll have to take him on soon and find out just how strong he's really become, but I can't risk losing an actual competition in front of Shino...'

"You recognized Kiba immediately, Naruto."

'Ugh, what a sourpuss.' Naruto's planned retort was cut short when a small shriek at the far end of the alley caught everybody's attention. Hinata hid around the corner, back against the fence, panting nervously. 'N... Naruto-kun...! I heard he was back in the village, but... wh... what should I do... I'm still not ready yet... we haven't met for three whole years... what should I say... my feelings... umm... umm...' Her mind was racing so fast she didn't notice Naruto peek around the corner.

"Hinata? Why are you hiding?" Naruto flinched as Hinata shrieked and passed out, landing on the roadside with a thud. "What the! Hinata, why are you falling over like that! Hey!"

Kiba and Shino gathered around Hinata's unconscious form.

"Why is it you always faint when you see Naruto?" Kiba wondered aloud.

"I see you didn't have any problems recognizing Hinata either, Naruto," Shino stated.

Naruto sagged, clenched his fists and growled through gritted teeth before standing upright and pointing at Shino. "You know what? Your family is ugly and your personal hygiene is questionable! Forget this, I don't want you on my team any more!"

Shino remained still as Naruto began to walk away. Kiba's curiosity, however, was peaked. "What team?"

"Mine!" Naruto spun around and yelled.

"...Which includes?"

'Ugh, I guess Shino _is_ contagious!' Naruto realized. "Team Seven is back in action! I'm with Sakura in Kakashi's team but we still need a fourth member, so I'm recruiting!"

"And who gave you that privilege?"

"Um..."

"Right. Why are you even asking people who are still in their original teams?"

"Are you just partially retarded or completely retarded?"

"I... hey!"

"Never mind, we have to wake Hinata up and meet Kurenai. She wants to brief us on some new program she thinks we should volunteer for."

"Whatever! Later, dog breath!" Naruto glared one last time at Shino before running off.

"Hmph," Kiba grunted while kneeling over Hinata. "You would think with nearly three years available for training, he'd at least have invested a little of his development into his brain."

"Are you sure that's what you'd really have preferred?"

"Shino, if you're insinuating my insecurity that I couldn't stand up to his strength in a match..."

"I was merely questioning the truth of your complaint, though now that you mention your insecurity..."

"I said _you_ were insinuating it!"

"The concept came to your mind first. I said nothing of the sort."

"Forget it... help me get her up." Kiba dug out a small jar of smelling salts from Hinata's coat pocket, popped the cap and waved it under her nose.

"Umm... umm... Naruto-kun...?" Hinata could distinguish Kiba kneeling over her and Shino leaning down to help her up, but she couldn't see a trace of Naruto.

Kiba sighed. "The dolt's as impatient as ever. He ran off just a minute ago, trying to find a new teammate to fill for Sasuke."

"...Oh..." Hinata felt the pit of humiliation open in the depths of her stomach. 'Three years I've been training... three years I've been getting stronger... three years I've been planning what to do when he comes back... how could I possibly have blown it worse?'

"Hey, c'mon now," Kiba helped Hinata to her feet. He knew how Hinata felt about Naruto. As their team grew its relations, she fully expressed her feelings for Naruto to him. He didn't see all that she saw in Naruto, but despite that, he helped her determine her approach to Naruto upon his return, so he had an idea of how she must be feeling at the moment. "Don't worry about it, he's still our beloved idiot. He'll probably have forgotten about this by tomorrow."

"R-right," Hinata nodded.

Kiba wasn't convinced. 'Still, probably the best thing to do is change subjects and let her bring it up again if or when she wants.' Kiba nodded his head to the far end of the road. "C'mon, let's go see what Kurenai wants." He hopped on Akamaru and they sped off, leaving Hinata and Shino to follow. 'Heh, good thing she didn't see him pulling up his sleeve, she'd probably be in a coma. Man that was something else.' Kiba held his own arm out in front of himself and pulled up the sleeve, observing his muscles jump around as he wiggled his fingers and clenched his fist. While no individual muscle was overbearingly large, they combined to form a formidable package and were developed well enough that all the basic definition was prominent even when fully relaxed, giving his arm a sleek and streamlined look. 'Still, even I could at least pass for human.'

Hinata trailed slowly behind Shino. 'I could still... take a look around...' Hinata checked to be sure nobody was watching her. 'Byakugan!' She located Naruto standing just few streets over, apparently lost in thought. Singling him out, she focused in on him, through his outfit and landed on the roadside with a thud.

"Kiba," Shino called, looking behind himself.

Kiba looked back. "Again?" He sighed and slapped Akamaru behind the ears. "Turn around buddy, looks like we've got a second passenger riding with us today." As the two made their way to Hinata's unconscious form, Kiba noticed a trail of blood from her nose. 'Heh, she must have taken a peek after all.'

"You look envious," Shino noted.

Kiba twitched as he yet again felt a grin emanating from Shino, one of amusement this time. "And you look like you're ready to be put in a coffin," he growled. "Help me load her up." Shino placed Hinata on Akamaru in front of Kiba, then the four wandered off to find Kurenai.

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Meanwhile, a commotion was developing at the ninja administration center.

"Look, Naruto, this is troublesome, but the Hokage specifically assigned me to referee the chuunin exams, so there's really nothing I can do, and I don't want hassle from the Hokage in addition to hassle from you. Got it?" Shikamaru's patience was the most drained it had been in three years. "Plus I told you, she was looking for you just recently. She wants to talk about your team status."

"Wha!" Naruto grabbed Shikamaru by his chuunin vest. "Why didn't you tell me!"

"I did, you moron! I just said 'I told you', that makes three times now." Shikamaru extended his shadow into dual pinpoints and pricked Naruto's funny bones.

"YEOWCH!" Naruto dropped Shikamaru.

"Now disappear before I turn you into a pincushion."

"Bah!" Naruto turned to leave, but turned back as curiosity took hold of him. "Hey, can you really do that?" No sooner than he asked, hundreds of pinpointed shadow tips, aimed at vital spots from head to toe, halted an inch away from their respective points of penetration. "Whoa, hey we're old buddies right? Heh heh..." Shikamaru held his stance. "Um... OK, I'll be on my way... later Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru retracted his shadows and sighed as Naruto waved and ran out the door. 'Why did he even want to know?'

Not more than a few steps out the door, Naruto spotted... "Choji?"

"Hey Naruto! Heard you were back in town, how's it going?"

"Great!" Naruto observed Choji as the two closed their distance. "Man, you haven't changed your eating habits huh? You're fatter than ever!" Before Naruto got a chance to repeat his prior flaunt routine with Kiba, he was four blocks further down the street than he was a few seconds earlier, now covered in the splintered wreckage of the last block's length of fence. 'Huh, guess he's not in the mood to talk right now,' he reckoned as he brushed off the wreckage and continued on his way to find Tsunade.

Choji stormed into the ninja administration, spotting an extremely perturbed-looking Shikamaru sorting through a pile of papers. Shikamaru looked up to spot Choji looking equally perturbed. "Don't tell me; you ran into Naruto too?"

"Yep."

"That was him who went flying by just now, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

"What a hassle. Sakura was right, he hasn't changed at all."

"Maybe not in the head, but he didn't seem phased by my hit. Only my dad ever continues un-phased through a pummeling like that. He's at least gotten stronger, if not more skilled."

"Great," Shikamaru groaned. "He was a big enough hassle three years ago when his fights never ended because he kept getting back up. Now you're saying he doesn't go down in the first place?"

"Hehe, well, I have some other skills to try before coming to that conclusion," Choji grinned maliciously, fantasies of pummeling Naruto running wild throughout his thoughts.

"Please, be my guest," Shikamaru relaxed slightly as a similar fantasy passed through his mind. The two continued conversing as Choji helped Shikamaru manage exam business.

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An incessant pounding on her office doors startled Tsunade from her nap. "Come in," she said, quickly rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The pounding continued. "COME IN!"

Naruto barged through the doors and slammed them shut behind him. "Hey hey, don't sound too happy to see me!"

"If you weren't making so much noise that you couldn't hear me the first time I said to come in, I just might be. Have a seat."

Naruto observed the bare office as he ran to one of the chairs in front of Tsunade's desk and sat down. 'Heh, I thought the old hag would've made this place nice and cozy by now.'

"I was looking for you earlier, after you ran off while I was in the middle of explaining something to you."

"Huh? Explaining what?"

"It doesn't matter now. Where have you been all this time?"

"Out looking for teammates!"

"Any success?"

"No! I asked a bunch of people, but they're all busy or lazy. I found most of my old classmates, but they were the worst! Shino wouldn't stop irritating me, Kiba asked if I was a retard, Hinata passed out, Shikamaru threatened to make me into a pincushion and Choji punched me four blocks down the road and through a fence! Oh, by the way, the fence four blocks down from the ninja administration needs to be replaced."

'That's right, only Naruto could ever make me feel relieved, happy, curious, amused, intrigued, frustrated and irritated in the span of ten seconds. I've grown used to consistency without his or Jiraiya's antics the last three years, haven't I?' Tsunade sighed. "Anyway, I have news regarding your team... or lack thereof."

"Eh?" Naruto stared blankly, thinking about every possible interpretation of Tsunade's last three words except the one he was certain they meant.

Tsunade could feel the anxiety emanating from him. 'Deliberation time is up,' she realized. "Naruto... I've been thinking of different ways to say this, but I don't think any amount of beating around the bush or sugar-coating techniques will change the impact... plus I know you like to get straight to the point, so I'll do just that... you're not in a team anymore, and you're not going on the mission to the Bridge of Heaven and Earth. As of today, by order of the Leaf village administration, you are restricted to the immediate vicinity of Leaf village."

Naruto froze in shock. A flurry of thoughts rushed through his mind faster than his body could keep up with. 'Who wanted this? Did every single one agree? Even Tsunade? Are they doing it to protect me or keep me under watch? What kind of watch? What else will they do to me? Is this just the beginning? What about the mission? What about Sakura? Will I get a new team? What do I do around here now anyway?' As the rush began to subside, one underlying question arose. "Why?"

Tsunade winced. She hadn't heard Naruto so weak and understated before. She had prepared to deal with a violent outburst, not emotional paralysis. "Naruto, listen to me. You need to know that I fought against this. I know you've been training for these missions. Believe me when I say that I trust you can handle yourself in them."

"...Then why?"

"The rest of the village administration doesn't. Our argument came down to a question of responsibility. I was threatened with personal accountability of all that should happen if you were indeed captured and the wrath of Kyuubi was somehow set loose. I returned to them the threat of full accountability for anything that should happen from your restriction. They agreed."

"So... you... you agreed too?"

"Yes, and I'll tell you why..."

"But," Naruto interrupted, regaining a bit of his flare, "it'll be just like Sand village, with Gaara's abduction!"

"Exactly. Akatsuki _will_ come for you, Naruto. Listen... your restriction will _not_ change your destined fight with Akatsuki. Your training _will_ be put to the exact use it was intended to be. During our debate, one of the elders suggested that as long as abduction attempts are being made on you, it is best that they happen here, where the entire Leaf village forces are available to help make those attempts a failure. Because I believed him when he said he had your best interests in mind, because I also believe that having the entire Leaf village forces available to aid you in a fight is best for you individually, and because the village administration has accepted responsibility for all 'collateral damage' - as they term it - in such an event, I agreed to your restriction. Again, you will have your fight, so in that regard, don't even think of this as a restriction. As I said, I trust you to handle yourself in this. Perhaps, once Akatsuki invades and is successfully driven off, the village administration will trust you as well." Tsunade observed Naruto's dejected look of suspicion. 'Not the reaction I was hoping for.'

"And you really think the village will jump to my aid?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.

'That would explain it. Why didn't I realize?' Tsunade wondered. "Naruto... when it comes to understanding your role, the majority of the civilians may be fools in the fullest sense of the word, but among the ninja, most understand the technique the Fourth used and have enough faith in his skills that you pose no threat to them. Surely you've seen a difference in your general treatment between the civilians and the ninja?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "Yes... but still, sometimes..."

"Emotions aren't always rational. Few people alive sixteen years ago escaped that day without heavy loss. People wanted justice, people wanted revenge. For some, even the death of Kyuubi would not be enough; they lost many things that could not be repaid and relations that could not be replaced. Even their meek satisfaction in revenge was denied when it was announced that Kyuubi was still alive in you. They recognize from a rational point of view that you are yourself first and a vessel second, and strive to acknowledge you as such, but that has to be accomplished through an emotional barrier constructed from years of unresolved bitterness. It's a hard task to ask of anybody, and you'll find varying levels of success. Some genuinely acknowledge you... some have to try very hard, but try nonetheless... some remain indifferent... some don't want to have anything to do with you, though they won't act against you either... and some wish for Kyuubi's death so greatly that you dying in the process is merely an unfortunate aftereffect. Of course, there are laws to keep those people in line. However, in every case, when forced to choose between letting Kyuubi remain imprisoned in you or letting it fall into the hands of those who would unleash its wrath once again, I don't yet know a ninja who wouldn't jump to your aid. I wish I could say they did it from a genuine care for you as an individual and as a comrade, but I'm afraid you'll have to overlook the motivations and settle for the actions."

"I know. It's not like there's much I can do about it now." Naruto stared at the floor, still looking disparaged.

"The day may come when you'll have earned the approval of all."

"That's no time soon." Naruto's stare remained fixed.

"And when did you become so quick to forget your dreams and wallow in your troubles instead? You don't yet even know what you'll be doing during your stay here. Now, more than ever, may be the time."

"Heh... you're right."

Tsunade smiled as Naruto finally cracked a slight grin and looked back up at her.

"I'll take it step by step. When Akatsuki comes, I'll show the village a fight they'll never forget, then they'll _have_ to acknowledge me." Naruto now flashed a genuine smile. "You know, you were right. Maybe this'll be my first big chance to prove myself to a whole load of people."

"Now, _that's_ the Naruto I know," Tsunade grinned.

"Although," Naruto paused, looking worried again, "what do I do now that I'm stuck here?"

"I'm glad you asked. You know I wouldn't keep you here if I didn't have a good purpose in mind for you." Tsunade smirked as Naruto cringed. "Don't worry, though, it's not like that. You'll do the occasional in-town mission, but more importantly, I'm recommending you for a new program. You've spent nearly three years as a student under Jiraiya. Strength and skill in battle are one important area of development for every ninja, but if you wish to be, say, _more than just a fighter_, you need to be well developed in many other areas as well. It's time for you to take the next big step in your path to becoming Hokage." Tsunade saw Naruto's intrigue peak. 'Good, he's still as easily captivated as ever.' She continued, "this will be unlike anything you've done before, but you have the skills, you have the potential, and now you have the time, so I'll be placing your recommendation very soon. Finally, this will provide a good insight into your Hokage potential."

"Huh? What, how!"

"Simple. If you can't succeed in this, you can forget about becoming Hokage."

"NO WAY! Bring it on, I'll trounce this right away!"

"Glad to hear," Tsunade wryly acknowledged, waiting for realization to dawn.

"Uh... hey, what is it anyway?"

"I won't tell you now. There will be a full briefing at the academy auditorium tomorrow morning at ten. I want you to attend, and I want you to volunteer. I won't make you, and I won't offer anything or threaten anything for volunteering or not volunteering, but I will say I can think of no better thing for you to be doing now and I believe you'll feel the same before it's over."

"OK, I'll do it!" Naruto grinned, his Hokage fantasies running wild once again. "Oh, I almost forgot! What about Sakura?"

"She has been assigned to a team of three jounin to complete the previously planned mission. They are currently preparing and will be leaving this evening. Their scheduled time for departure is at eight o'clock. If you wish to talk with Sakura, wait at the village gates a few minutes before then."

"OK," Naruto said vacantly, his mind focused on the impending evening, ruminating over what to say when the moment arrived.

"Anything else?"

"Um... no, just got a lot to think about now I guess."

"Take some time. I realize this is all very sudden, but you're also very adaptable. Just stay focused on the positive side of things. Sakura will manage her part of the mission. Believe me, your trust in her would not be misplaced."

"I know," Naruto looked up in resolve. "She'll do even better than last time."

"I concur."

Naruto inhaled a deep breath, relieving a bit of his recent tension, but still focused on the looming farewell talk with Sakura. "I'll be on my way then." Naruto stood to leave. "Um... thanks..."

"No problem, Naruto. Let me know what happens at the academy briefing tomorrow."

"OK," Naruto turned and left.

'Well, I'm glad that concluded on better terms than I expected. He still seems awfully stressed though. Hopefully he'll have everything sorted within the next few days,' Tsunade thought as she returned to her paperwork.

Naruto mused over his meet with Tsunade as he left the Hokage tower and stopped on the road outside the main gate. 'Man, what a wreck... I need a rest.' Naruto began heading to his old apartment when he remembered it wasn't his anymore. With intent of relocating upon his return, the ownership had been transferred to a new tenant shortly after he had left. However, relocation arrangements were cut short, as was his initial return, by Gaara's abduction.

'Dang... now what?'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mild chatter arose from various patrons in the Jue Hong Zhou's Lucky Wok restaurant. The dining hall had a central table section that extended from the front entrance to the back kitchen, symmetrically bordered by two separate aisles that ran from front to back with booths on each side. The majority of the lunch rush had dissipated, leaving a few lingerers lounging at the tables and a group of three familiar ninja seated at a half-circle booth on the left side near the back of the right aisle.

"...And so I told him, in cases where you did something wrong but didn't endanger anyone or breaking that particular law has no effect on anyone, you need to get into a debate with the nin trying to enforce the law over whether he wants to be a simple tool of the village administration or whether he wants to become a policy maker, using his implied powers to void a law that shouldn't exist in the first place. Then club him with a log and run away," Kiba explained to Shikamaru and Ino, currently sitting to his left and to his front, waiting for their late lunch order to be made and delivered.

"What was he doing in the Forest of Death anyway?" Ino asked.

"Probably looking for rare bugs or something. Who knows? I put Shino in the 'do not question' category years ago. If he showed up to training one day in a neon pink and yellow tutu with several recent open and bleeding stab wounds singing Ninki while eating a statue of the Fifth made of cheese, I wouldn't give it a second thought."

"Hey, isn't that Naruto?" Ino interrupted, pointing at a window near the entrance.

"Huh?" Shikamaru looked to his right while Kiba looked behind himself. "Looks like it."

"NARUTOOOOOO!" Ino yelled across the dining hall at him, waving wildly as he passed by the main entrance.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts, quickly locating the sound of the screeching inside the restaurant and waving back at whom he now recognized as Ino.

Ino noticed Shikamaru drooping under the table. "Shikamaru, what do you think you're doing?"

"Vanishing," he replied, crawling the length of the aisle toward the back of the restaurant and escaping out the back door before Naruto began walking down the aisle.

Ino's perplexion at Shikamaru's peculiar exit subsided as Naruto approached. Kiba didn't give it a second thought. He knew nobody put as much effort into avoiding any level of exertion as Shikamaru. 'Although, now that I think about it, he probably had the right idea. Combining Ino with Naruto is something even I'd call troublesome.'

"Hey Naruto! Long time no see! How ya doing?" Ino yelled as if he were still standing at the entrance.

"Uh... OK, I guess," he said, somewhat overloaded with thoughts and somewhat overloaded with the volume of Ino.

"Something bothering you?"

"Nah, I'll be fine."

'He looks like he just got some bad news,' Kiba observed. 'Maybe this won't be such a bother after all.'

"Hey, wow! Forehead was right, you _did_ grow!" Ino stepped up to him, measuring her eyes at his chin level. "Wanna join us for lunch, big guy?" She tugged on his wrist, motioning him to the middle of the booth.

Naruto was annoyed to see Ino's antics around guys hadn't changed much, but wasn't in the mood to find out if her fury at being brushed off remained equally similar. "Sure," he replied, figuring he might be able to scrounge a place to stay, or at least a bit of guidance, from one of these two. He slid into Shikamaru's old spot to Kiba's left as Ino sat to his left. Naruto and Kiba exchanged glances, both expecting a cheap stab from the other and both surprised not to get one.

"So, tell us, Naruto! What have you been up to all this time?" Ino asked, a little too gleefully for Naruto.

"Mostly just traveling and training with Jiraiya. We covered all the major countries on the continent, though we tended to visit small towns instead of big cities, if we ever needed to visit civilization at all. There were a few times he wanted me to see all the kinds of weird traditions people around the countries have, and so we'd occasionally visit obscure villages and observe them."

"The ones with hot springs, right?" Kiba asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah... er, what?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow at Kiba, who smirked at the response.

"Your teacher's reputation is well known around here," he clarified.

"Bah! We did nothing of the sort! ... Well, at least _I_ didn't."

"Then what _did_ you 'observe', hmm?"

"Plenty!"

"Such as...?"

"Well, a lot of the places we visited were so out of the way that they had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world. Some of them are like that cause they hate ninja and want to stay as away from them as possible. They say ninjutsu stuff is demonic and not something people are supposed to use. Actually, a lot of people hate the hidden villages for different reasons, but they can't fight either, so it doesn't really matter. They're probably just jealous anyway. But some of them were cool! Like this one that was up in massive trees so high up you couldn't see it from the ground, where all the buildings were built into the trees and connected with miles of bridges. Or another one that was completely underground, with an underground river and everything. The coolest was a little town at the top of the continent with all its buildings and roads carved out of ice!"

"Wow, that must have been beautiful!" Ino cooed.

"Yeah, especially at night, since their only lights were fire-based and the flickering was flashing all over the place. I thought it was weird they'd allow that amount of fire in a village like that, but there were a lot weird places. Some people worship cats cause they think the dumb things are responsible for the weather and crops and stuff. I found that out when I kicked an annoying one down the street and got us chased out of this lame cat village by... probably the entire village. Somebody came after us to tell why, though. And also to say we're banished and will be killed upon return. Oh, and there was one dinky village with about two hundred people in one of the lame countries between Earth and Wind. It was surrounded by mountains, and the people didn't think the world beyond them existed no matter how much I argued. I even tried to tell some they should leave and see, but they just said I was testing their faith. They thought visitors were spirits in human form and treated them like the country lords here get treated. Heh, I wanted to stay there, but Jiraiya wouldn't allow it."

"Sounds like you had a wild trip. Nothing like the monotonous things we do," Kiba said.

"What monotonous things?" Naruto asked.

"Missions, training and the like," Kiba replied. "Don't get me wrong, there's nothing I'd rather be doing, but all our missions go like 'finish this, deliver that, protect these people, spy on those people, insert life-threatening battle in the process'; wash, rinse, repeat. It's like you say, we never really leave the ninja world. The only village I've ever visited outside of Fire Country is another ninja village, Hidden Sand."

"Hey, it's not like I was on some relaxing vacation, with all the training he had me going through..."

"Oooh! Tell me about it!" Ino interrupted.

'Damn, she's gonna milk this for all it's worth,' Kiba sighed and looked away to his right. 'Why did I tell her about running into Naruto earlier? This is probably going to end with her amusement at my expense.'

'Ugh, shoulda known she would jump on that. Why did I let that slip?' Naruto berated himself for being so oblivious. 'Normally I'd have some fun with it, but there's too much else to deal with right now. Oh well, just answer her, I suppose.' Naruto recalled the beginning of his journey nearly three years ago. "We figured out a standard plan a few weeks after I left the village..."

_"See, you're loud, clumsy, obnoxious and have no patience or restraint. Everything a great ninja is not supposed to be."_

_Naruto scowled at Jiraiya as they wandered the countryside._

_"However, all of that makes your style of fighting very unexpected and sure to catch most ninja off guard, and this is where we develop strength out of what most would consider weakness."_

_"Eh?"_

_"Back in the academy, you studied what was right and wrong when it came to being a ninja. However, in developing style, you leave behind right and wrong in pursuit of what is distinguishing and suitable to your personality. There is no satisfactory explanation of style, no point-by-point guide to developing a good one, no set rules that everybody can use to shape their own. One can give pointers, but the instant they turn into rules, they hinder true progress. In many cases, a ninja can follow textbook rules to perfection and still be an impotent fighter. The development of a style is a mystery unique to every individual, one that they must ultimately solve on their own. I can give you suggestions and cautions, but the task is yours."_

_The realization that his Rasengan training would probably seem like a walk in the park after this began to sink in and weigh heavily on Naruto. "Well where do I start then?"_

_"In your case, you are highly emotion-driven instead of rationality-driven, and you'll need to develop a style that is in tune with your character, not one that contradicts it or restricts it. Unlike the majority of ninja who try to kill their persona in vain attempts of textbook perfection, Sarutobi was aware of the strength that flowed from emotion and realized that the unity of character and style was where full potential could truly be reached. Sacrificing character is stabbing yourself in the foot when it comes to meeting full potential, and so we in Leaf build style on character. Others may mock, but Leaf's status as the largest and most prosperous hidden village, especially in light of recent events, speaks for itself."_

_Naruto recalled his all-too-short talk with Haku on Tazuna's bridge four years ago, but was broken out of his reverie as Jiraiya continued._

_"Developing a style is usually a slow and tedious process. Your mind races while your development tries to keep up. Think of yourself as a starving hunter trying to catch fish, sometimes roaming in search, sometimes waiting for something to come at all, staying on task for undetermined amounts of time and making occasional attempts to target worthwhile selections as they do speed by, with the ultimate hope of gathering a full meal. As with fishing, you need at least a rough idea of what you're aiming for so that you know what is worth pursuing and worth letting go of, lest you overload yourself learning every available skill and miss the forest for the trees, landing yourself in endless labor... much like an old teammate of mine."_

_"Orochimaru." Naruto glared at his mention._

_"Anyway... as I was saying, I can guide and reprove you, but the task of developing a style remains yours. I will train you in specific skills and techniques, but how you use them is up to you. After observing your performance in the various skills and drills I've had you perform during the last few weeks and familiarizing myself with your personal history, I've thought of some areas in which you should be able to excel and ultimately adapt into an effective fighting style."_

_"Yay! What are they?"_

_"Well, like I said, you're essentially worthless by textbook standards, as your academy record clearly shows." Naruto glowered before Jiraiya continued. "However, your fight record and technique collection show a contrary story. Two assets continuously lend you success in your battles. First; your physical stamina. Not only does directly charging an enemy or running straight into their attacks throw them off when you don't perform the expected dodge or block, your ability to continue on through such a pummeling will catch them at the moment they least anticipated the need to defend themselves. Combine that with Kyuubi's regenerative ability and chakra reserve, and you should be able to defeat most opponents simply by exhausting them and attacking once they're worn down. However, you won't always have time for that, which brings me to your second asset; your spontaneous way of dealing with fallbacks. After you survive attacks that should defeat you, you quickly recover with a surprisingly practical use of available resources. The problem is that you rarely think beyond the next move, which is why you end up in such dangerous situations in the first place."_

_"Yeah yeah... so what kind of training are we gonna work on for these then?"_

_"Your second asset is where we'll develop your ninjutsu. Since teaching you to plan is a lost cause, we'll focus on best manipulating your surroundings to your advantage. In other words, I'll train you to be an elemental specialist, starting with lesser and greater basic elements, then combining those to form lesser and greater compound elements, and..."_

_"Uh," Naruto interrupted, "what are... elements?"_

_Jiraiya staggered. "You know, I realize that elements are only very briefly covered in the academy because they're a specialty and not general information everybody can or will use, but even you can't be so stupid as to not have learned anything from experience."_

_"Hey, it's not like most of my teachers actually _teached_, instead of stalking young women, so now's your chance!"_

_"Taught."_

_"Whatever! What are they!"_

_"Actually, there are a few theories of what exactly qualifies as elements. It used to be that only physical entities qualified, but now people qualify elements based on their manipulability. As I was saying, there are lesser and greater basic elements which everybody can agree on. Lesser basics consist of air, cold, light, vibration and water. Greater basics consist of gravity, heat, dark, inertia and earth. As you might guess, each lesser basic has an opposing greater basic. A cold-based attack met with an equally-powered heat-based attack will result in the termination of both attacks. Likewise, a higher-powered heat-based attack will consume the cold-based attack and continue its path, though weakened in proportion to the cold-based attack it consumed."_

_"So was Sasuke an elemental user, with his fire attacks and all? Those were heat, right?"_

_"Partially, and that brings me to lesser and greater compound elements. While everybody can agree on the basics, not everybody agrees that their combination forms new elements. Ninja do, though, so we'll forget about the others who disagree. Lesser compounds consist of electricity, fire, ice and wind. Greater compounds consist of plasma and vacid. Unlike the basics, the opposing elements are in their own categories, rather than their opposite categories. For example, Sasuke's fire attacks are a combination of air, heat and light, so cold alone won't negate them; you're best off combining water with cold to make ice." Jiraiya could tell by the increasingly expressionless look on Naruto's face that he wouldn't get very far by explanation alone. 'I guess we won't be getting to complex elements for an awfully long time.'_

_"Uh... I don't really get it," Naruto confirmed Jiraiya's worry._

_"Well then, let's get to the second part of your training," Jiraiya said, '...and the part which will give me the most pleasure,' he mentally added. "After spending mornings draining your chakra reserve practicing elemental skills, you'll be ready to focus solely on developing your physical stamina. There will be two parts to this. First; we'll develop your muscular endurance. You may be familiar with the weighted training Gai has his student Lee do, and that will be a fundamental in your training as well. However, in my vastly superior expertise, I've developed plenty other methods of training when it comes to boosting endurance. Now, all of this not only overloads your muscles, but your bones as well, which brings me to the second part; increasing your bone density. Your bones will grow in reaction to the extreme and sudden stress of your endurance training, but that can still be improved upon by impact training, which basically consists of bashing available bones against heavy things or bashing heavy things against available bones. Punching logs is a common practice, but again, I have a surplus of methods superior to such low-grade basics; methods which will develop every bone in your body, not just your knuckles and shins. Most will require my help, and once your chakra is drained from your ninjutsu training and your energy is drained from your endurance training, I'll administer the bone strengthening for you."_

_"So basically that means by the time I'm completely pooped and incapable of defending myself, let alone moving at all, you're going to pound on me for the rest of the day?"_

_"Yep!" Jiraiya grinned._

_"Haha! Ha..." Naruto looked back up at Jiraiya, whose expression hadn't changed as it would have if he were teasing. "You're not kidding, are you?"_

_"Nope!" Jiraiya kept grinning._

_'Damn.'_

"...and so that's pretty much how we continued the entire time," Naruto finished summarizing his conversation with Jiraiya, excluding any mention of Kyuubi. Their meals had been delivered while Naruto was talking, his audience currently eating and Naruto content to begin eating Shikamaru's sukiyaki in his absence.

"And what exactly were his _vastly superior_ methods?" Ino asked.

"Top secret; can't tell," Naruto lifted his head and crossed his arms in a mock superiority pose. A glare from Ino made him withdraw his pose. "Actually, I suppose I can tell about a _few_. Plus, it's not right that he gets away with what he did, so I'll complain anyway!" Ino grinned and Kiba braced himself for a long rant, though he had to admit he was interested. "Alright, like he said, I used the weights like Lee did, though he had all different kinds of straps and vests, and he'd position them differently all the time to constantly throw me off balance... usually literally. He also cast gravity binding techniques on me to make me weigh ridiculously more than normal, and he usually did it without notice, so my first big workout was getting back up. If we weren't traveling, he had me getting into screwball positions that no person should be able to bend into so that all the weight overloaded specific muscles, most of which I never knew I had. Sometimes I dragged and carried large stuff around. Usually _stones_. Freaking stones, you'll never realize how common they are until you've spent years wishing there was an area without them and never finding one. So we spent afternoons doing that, then once I finally collapsed, he'd start the random torture: punching me, kicking me, jabbing and clubbing me with logs, rolling steel rods across my shins, stuff like that... and of course, stones, there were always plenty of stones around to throw at me or drop on me. Just to name a _few_ things, that is. Usually there're special training grounds for this kind of thing, but we had to 'improvise'. I spent the first month cursing him, but then I noticed, it actually _was_ working. I eventually became satisfied with it when he decided to pound on me and snapped his fingers on my shoulder," Naruto grinned at the gratifying memory.

"So," Kiba smirked, speaking through a mouthful of sashimi, "now you're not only dumb as a rock, you're hard as one too."

"Hehe, yep!" Naruto pounded his chest.

'Three... two... one...' Kiba braced himself.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Naruto slapped Kiba up the back of his head.

Ino, disregarding the minor ruckus while thinking of a subtle way to size up Naruto, interrupted when she came to a conclusion. "Well, Kiba, it sounds like you've got competition, huh?"

Kiba looked irritated while Naruto looked confused.

"Oh, didn't you know, Naruto? Kiba's been our stamina boy in your absence. We all thought he had to have surpassed even you, but now I'm not so sure anymore," Ino said, feigning bewilderment. "How's about a little contest to settle it?"

"Ah, I'd rather not Ino. I've got a lot of stuff on my mind, so I'm not really in the mood for some kind of spar."

Ino saw relief on Kiba's face as Naruto tried to decline and knew she couldn't let this slide. "Relax! I'm not talking about some colossal battle. A simple arm-wrestle will do," she said in her most innocuous voice.

Naruto looked wary because he knew Ino just wanted to size him up. Kiba looked wary because he knew Ino would never suggest something so untwisted as a standard arm-wrestling match.

"Alright then," Naruto angled his right arm and placed his elbow on the table. 'This ought to be easy enough,' he figured. Kiba followed suit and locked hands with Naruto, waiting for Ino to start the match.

"No, no, no! Not like that!" Ino scolded as if it was the most obvious mistake they could make.

"Eh?" They asked in unison.

"That's old-fashioned and boring. I've got a way better idea. What you guys do is link your arms together so your biceps are pressing against each other, wrap your forearms around the back of the other guy's arm, then _squeeze_! The guy with the stronger arm crushes the guy with the weaker arm. See, it's just that simple!" Ino grinned.

"Not for the guy who gets crushed," Kiba muttered.

"Now, roll up your sleeves and hook your arms together like this," Ino instructed, holding out her arm in a V-shape. They complied, Ino barely suppressing a gasp as Naruto pulled his right sleeve over his shoulder. Naruto and Kiba re-situated themselves and linked their arms as Ino ordered. "Good! Now, get ready! Three... two... one... GO!"

The muscles in their arms rippled as they exploded into action, biceps swelling into balls, each fighting to override the other. Veins branched out over Naruto's arm like wild lightning as he poured on the pressure. Kiba grunted and heaved, teeth gritting as he tried to return the force. Despite his best efforts, Kiba was already beginning to feel his arm flatten. Naruto noticed this as well. His arm twitched as he upped the ante. Kiba's arm was beginning to tremble under the pressure. Sinews in his forearm rippled and popped to their maximum contraction as he flexed forth his best effort. Veins in his neck bulged and his face contorted in throbbing concentration. "Aww, don't tell me that's it for Mr. Stamina boy?" Ino teased Kiba, a sheen of sweat now glossing his skin from the exertion. "Naruto's not even straining yet," she said disappointedly, hoping to flare Kiba's temper to his advantage. Naruto, indeed not showing any signs of stress other than an intense look of concentration, was now aware of his impending victory and jerked his arm to his ultimate flex. Kiba yelped, face screwing in pain. "Oooh, Kiba, that looks like it really hurts!" Ino taunted. Kiba's ego prevented him from giving in, especially now that Ino was rubbing it the wrong way, but he knew he wouldn't last much longer. His already-shaking arm was beginning to cramp from the effort and his head was feeling light. "Kiba, I think you'd better surrender before your arm ends up being a useless mass of mush," Ino suggested, this time out of serious concern. Everybody knew that as hard as it was to avoid Ino's antics, it was even harder to argue with her, and Kiba's current impediment gave him no room to think about disputing. "Give!" he growled.

Naruto relaxed and sat back, taking a deep breath of satisfaction. "Hey, that actually _was_ pretty fun!"

"Yeah... fun," Kiba muttered under his breath as he rolled his sleeve back down to hide the impending bruising and rubbed his right arm, trying to numb the ache.

"Aww, don't be a sore loser!" Ino teased, reaching across the table, poking Kiba in the arm and giggling at his yelp. "Oh, silly me! I forgot to mention, the loser's gotta kiss the winner's arm!" Both boys looked at her in surprise. "Ah well, since I forgot to mention that part before the match, we can do it later... in a more public place," Ino grinned as the boys momentarily calmed in relief before blushing and staring at their meal remains as if the morsels of food suddenly became the most captivating items in the world.

Kiba broke the sudden silence. "Back in a minute. Gotta piss."

Once Kiba was gone, Naruto turned to Ino. "Is it just me, or is Kiba not such an arrogant hot-headed snob anymore?"

"If I remember correctly, you're the last one to be calling anybody hot-headed. But as long as you bring it up, yes, he's been that way for about a year. I'll just say there was an accident in his family. He'll tell you details if he wants."

'Ino... having respect for privacy? Must be something big,' Naruto thought.

"He changed a lot," she continued. "It's taken all of us a while to get him back to how he was before."

"Hmph, and why would you want that?"

"His own good. At first, we could barely get him out of the house. It was months before he even smiled. Trust me, if you had been around then, I'm sure even you would've wanted the old over the new. Even now, he's a bit more mellow than he used to be... but, I think he'll always be like that. He still acts tough and rowdy around teammates and friends, but sometimes I catch him alone and it almost seems like he's thinking."

"There's a fresh idea."

"Yeah, maybe you could learn it from him?"

"Sure, why n... hey!" Naruto pouted at Ino.

"Point made," Ino grinned.

"Hmph!" Naruto crossed his arms, scrunched his nose and looked away.

"Lovers' quarrel?" Kiba asked, observing the discord as he returned from the restroom.

"Kiba, if you don't sit down and shut up, I'll finish what Naruto started," Ino said, holding a fist near Kiba's right arm to make her point.

"Yes sir," Kiba acknowledged and obeyed Ino, who settled for kicking him in the shin once he was seated.

For a moment, nobody said anything. Naruto decided this was a good time to ask. "By the way... I kinda forgot that my place was leased to somebody else when I left the village, so... I don't really have a place to live... so, uh..."

Ino rolled her eyes at Naruto's absentmindedness, but was more amused by the prospect he was presenting. "I'd love to have you stay with me, but our house is already packed. Plus my parents don't want me staying or living with other guys yet, for whatever reason, so they'll say no anyway."

'Whatever reason, indeed,' both boys thought.

"I don't know anybody with a spare room off-hand," Ino continued, looking at Kiba. "How's about you?"

Kiba squinted his eyes in deliberation for a minute before replying. "I can clear a... an old room for you."

"Kiba!" Ino looked surprised. Kiba nodded at her.

"Well, I was looking for a _house_, not a dog pen, but I guess beggars can't be choosers, huh?"

"Idiot. I'm giving you your own room. The dogs stay out back."

Naruto saw his cheap stab didn't have the intended effect. "Relax, I was teasing. I'll take it, thanks."

"Sure. I've gotta get it ready first, so come by later tonight."

"Alright. How long can I say?"

"It shouldn't take too long for you to get a place, so, not too long."

"OK," Naruto said. Another moment of silence ensued. 'Guess this is a good time to split,' he thought. "I'll be going then. Got some stuff to take care of."

"Yeah, me too," Kiba stood to let Naruto out.

"Thanks for inviting me to eat."

"Any time, big guy," Ino winked at Naruto and left to pay for the lunches.

"OK, I'll see... oh hey wait, Kiba, where do you live anyway?"

The two boys confirmed directions and split ways upon leaving the restaurant.

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'How did I get myself into this one?' Kiba wondered to himself as he moseyed the roads leading to his house. 'It's not like me to be impulsive like that.' Images of everybody he'd ever known laughing at that statement flooded his mind. 'I mean, OK, so I'm one of the most impulsive guys around, but even I know when and how to control it. I haven't let many people in during the last year. I don't even like spending more time than necessary in there myself. I guess I would've done the same thing for most anybody else. But, that would've been a simple favor, nothing more. This time, I'm actually anxious to have him over. Why the idiot, of all people?' He thought it over for a few minutes. 'I guess I'm just curious. I've been around all the other people while he was away, so I know them pretty well. Plus, they don't seem all that different because I see them all the time. I haven't seen Naruto in over three years, and I never really got to know him before then. He's changed a lot during that time. I wonder how much?' He had a few obvious clues already.

"Yeow," he winced, pulling up his right sleeve to see his arm already bruising intensely. He wiggled his fingers and moved his forearm up and down, causing throbs of pain to dart through the length of his arm. He sighed and rolled his sleeve back down. 'Why aren't I upset? I'd be plotting revenge if anybody else pulled this off on me. I don't really understand this feeling, or lack thereof. I guess it was a win well deserved. If what he says isn't over-exaggerated, he obviously had a far more rigorous training program than any of us. I wonder just how strong he really is. I haven't been around anybody with that kind of strength since...' his thoughts trailed off as he approached his house.

It was a large run-down tan building with various pipes, vents and utilities scattered randomly along the outer walls. A dilapidated wooden awning separated the bigger first level from the smaller second level. Similar wooden canopies hung over the few windows. A large tan sphere branded with the Inuzuka clan's red fang rested on four beams atop the highest point of the roof, surrounded by a haphazardly installed fence running the length of the roof. A more uniformly installed fence ran the property boundaries, keeping the dogs confined to the immediate yard when they weren't in the kennel behind the house. The place wasn't pretty, but it was functional, and that's all that concerned Kiba.

He hopped the main gate and entered into a small foyer with various closets on both sides. Stepping up three steps, he walked down a hallway spanning the depth of the house. It connected the training dojo occupying the right half of the first level with the living quarters occupying the left half of the first level and the front entry with the rear exit. The first doorway on the left led to a living room with various chairs, tables and shelves scattered around, the second doorway on the left led to the kitchen, and the center door on the right led to the dojo. Between the kitchen and living room were a bathroom and a staircase to the second level. He ascended the steps to a small hallway with two doors on each side. The first on the right led to his room, the second on the right led to his sister's room, the first on the left led to his dad's room and the second on the left led to another bathroom.

Kiba unlocked the first door on the left and walked into the old room. It had been a few months since he was last in here. It was easy to get lost. Not physically; the room was fairly small, although it was the largest of the three bedrooms. One small window was centered on the far wall, a clothing closet was accessible via the far half of the left wall, a storage cabinet occupying the space before it. A bed ran lengthwise against the far wall into the far right corner of the room and a dresser was situated next to the bed on the right wall. No room to lose an actual person. Mentally, however, it was a different story; all his dad's personal belongings were here, from his clothing to his ninja tools to his pictures of family, friends and comrades to his general and personal writings to the oft-updated family history scrolls, all arranged in their typical order and all that he didn't want Naruto rummaging through in confounded curiosity.

Kiba started selecting things to put away, but each one he selected brought to mind memories he couldn't help but dwell upon. 'Dang, there's no way I'll have this made into a guest room in time.'

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The evening sunset tinted Leaf village in fiery shades of orange and yellow while casting lengthy shadows of trees, buildings and other structures across the scenery. Sakura waited at the main gate with her new team of three jounin.

"It's nearing eight o'clock," stated a short black-haired man dressed in a black outfit and a jounin vest. "We should be heading out in a few minutes."

The other two team members agreed. Sakura hesitantly nodded in approval. 'Hurry up, Naruto!' As if telepathically willing his presence, Naruto came sauntering toward the gate, staring at the road he traveled, hands in his pockets. Sakura smiled in relief. "Yeah, just a few minutes," she told the black-haired team leader and ran down the road to meet Naruto.

Naruto looked up as the speedy footsteps approached him. "Sakura..."

Sakura stopped in front of him. Seeing the melancholy turmoil in his face, she realized she'd be doing most of the talking. "I know, Naruto. I heard from Tsunade." She closed her eyes as she sighed. "I'm sorry. The council... is stupid. Very stupid. And arrogant." Anger and frustration were quickly beginning to boil over into her expression and speech. "They forget that we're ultimately a war-oriented city and that we need a strong leader to run the village, not a democracy! The entire reason the Third chose the Fourth when he did is because he knew the village needed a new leader with new ideals and new leadership tactics to keep everybody from getting into a rut. After the Third was forced out of retirement, he was already old and had nothing new to offer the village, that's why everything was so lax. He didn't challenge the council. They gained too much power during his second rule, and even after three years of power struggle, Tsunade still has a hard time keeping them in their place. I..." she stopped her bitter ranting when she saw Naruto's slightly surprised expression. "Sorry, I'm just frustrated, I know you didn't come here for a history lesson," she apologized and lightened her mood. "But... I'm glad you came, I couldn't find you anywhere and I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't see you before leaving."

Naruto nodded, not sure to what say, but deciding the simple truth should suffice. "I was at my hiding place."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. 'Hiding place? That was random.'

"...I've never told anybody I go there, or that I even had one. But... just for later, I'll trust you with it."

"Uh," Sakura cut in, "Naruto, I really appreciate it, but..."

"No, it's fine," Naruto cut back. "I don't mind being found by you. Really, I think now, I'd actually like it. I never said it on the last mission, but, I'm so happy that you didn't stop being my friend after finding out about... my birthday. You've been so accepting and understanding of me since I came back."

"How could I not? For what you've been through... I could preach ten times longer about how stupid the Leaf residents are than how stupid the council is, so I won't even bother. You've proven what a good friend you are, and I'm proud to call you my friend and say that you always will be."

"That's why I want to share this with you. If, when you get back and you ever can't find me... check the little pond under the Hokage monument."

"What little pond?"

"It's in a small area of trees behind the storage sheds."

"Oh... I didn't know there was anything under there."

"I know, nobody does. That's why I go there when I want to be alone. It's shady and quiet. Any village activity sounds like far off background noise. I found it around the time I began the ninja academy. I used to hide there a lot when I needed a place and didn't want to go home. It's the only place I can feel all by myself in a village full of people."

Naruto's disclosure intrigued Sakura. 'Every time I've talked with him since his return, I realize how much deeper of a person he is than I ever thought he was. I wish I had time to explore him now. Damn, all of this political crap couldn't happen at a worse time! Still, if it's a hideaway spot, what did he need to do there this time?'

"I... was trying to think of what to say when I got here," Naruto continued, shaking his head. "I don't know..."

Sakura put her hand on his shoulder as he blinked back tears.

"Sakura... please save Sasuke. I know you can do this. I miss that bastard so much." Naruto let a faint smile slip at his last sentence. "I never thought I could say that, but in spite of all our fighting, he was the closest friend I ever had. The time I spent in Team Seven is the first time I really enjoyed life. I've met a lot of people, been to a lot of places and done a lot of things since he left, but none of it compares to the old days. There's just something missing without him. I'd love so much for him to come through that gate and call me 'dobe' one more time." Naruto hung his head. "I'm sorry I can't be of any use when you need me most. I've been waiting for this for three years... and now, I... I just..." Naruto startled as Sakura pulled him into a hug.

"Shhh... relax, Naruto," Sakura whispered into his ear, patting the back of his head.

He returned the hug and put his arms around Sakura. "I just want everything to be back the way it was."

"It will be," she reassured him as she pulled back, keeping her hands on his shoulders. "If you know I can do this, then you have no reason to worry. It'll just take a lot of patience. I don't know what to say about the wait, because I don't know if I could take the suspense myself. But you know this means as much to me as it does to you. I feel the same emptiness without him, and I feel the same need to heal it. All I can do is my best, and that's all I will do."

Naruto nodded and looked Sakura in the eye. "You're right. I believe you. I shouldn't have gotten upset. I guess I was just being selfish."

"Nonsense. There's no selfishness in wanting to help a friend in need. This mission could go for a while, but it should be over soon enough. Just wait it out here. I know Tsunade approved the council's decision, and when she gave me an idea of what possibilities you'll have here, I could see why she approved. If you can trust me with my responsibilities, you'll have no problem handling yours. Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Naruto said with certainty.

Sakura smiled. "Thanks. And I know you'll do great in whatever you decide to do here as well."

Naruto grinned as his last bits of worry left him. 'Sakura... you've grown into much more of a healer than just a physical one.'

"Now, it's time for me to go."

"Wait, Sakura! Um... you haven't told anybody else about me, have you?"

"What about you?"

"You know..." Naruto nodded at his stomach.

"Oh. No, I haven't. Your secret's safe with me."

"Thanks."

Sakura nodded. "Also, be careful with Kiba. I don't want to have to fix him up again when I get back," she winked at Naruto. Catching his confused look, she explained. "After I heard about you staying with him, I stopped by his place to say thanks and ask if he needed anything. He asked if I could do a quick fix on his arm. It was bruising pretty badly, but he wouldn't say why. All I could get out of him was that it was your fault."

"Ah... I see," Naruto tried to repress a mischievous grin and scratched the back of his head.

'I guess I'd rather not know.' Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Goodbye, Naruto. See you later!"

"...Bye, Sakura."

Naruto watched pensively as Sakura and her new team run through the gate. Gears squeaked as it closed with thud. He stared at the two doors for a minute. 'The two doors I won't be going through for a long, long time.' He had seen them close many times. This was the first time he felt like he was being imprisoned. He looked up at the guards to see them staring down at him. 'No doubt they already have orders to stop me if I even try getting close to the gate.'

Naruto turned around and headed for Kiba's house. 'Oh well, that's not important now. Sakura's on the mission. She'll see it through. There's no better person to trust it with.' A smile spread across his face as he refocused his thoughts on more positive matters. 'Might as well enjoy myself while I'm here. Time to go hassle Kiba!'

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Afternoon quickly settled into evening. Kiba was reading through a family history scroll when he heard pounding on the main door downstairs. 'Jeez, he's early...' He looked up and out the window, seeing nothing but black. '...Or I just lost track of time.' A startling "KIIIIBAAAAAA!" resounded from the living room. 'Ugh, I thought the door was locked.' Footsteps worked their way up the stairs. "KIBA?"

"In here, Naruto." The door opened behind him.

"Aaa-HA! Don't answer the door, you yutz! What kind of host are you?" Naruto stomped in and crossed his arms in indignation.

"Just barge right in, you dolt. What kind of guest are you?" Kiba half-heartedly mocked.

"Hmph, what's with you? A little preoccupied?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. I thought I would have this ready for you, but... I kept getting sidetracked."

Naruto made note of his surroundings. "Hey, this place is all dusty! How do you expect me to breathe in here? What is this anyway?"

"It was my dad's room."

"Oh." Naruto walked to the dresser at his right and set his pack down before a certain word jumped out at him. "Was?" He suddenly remembered Ino's words to him at lunch. 'An accident...'

Kiba rolled up the scroll, set it back on the shelf and took a seat on the bed, facing Naruto but staring through him. "He died on a mission about a year ago. It was a fluke. He and a friend were sent on an assassination mission. Some group of nobodies were pillaging small towns around here. They were going to ambush the rogues, so they were spread out preparing traps. He was finishing assembling a kunai trap when it malfunctioned and scattered kunai everywhere. A stray kunai sliced the side of his face. That wasn't a problem, but, the poison on it was. His friend rushed him back to the village, but the poison spread to his brain before they made it halfway. It should have been the simplest treatment, but all medic-nins were with teams on higher-ranked missions. If it sliced him anywhere else, they would have made it back in more than enough time for treatment. It was so stupid, how something that random could happen. Even after I went to the funeral, saw him in the casket and watched him buried, I kept waiting for the lame prank to end. But he never did come back, and the joke never ended. He's just gone... I miss him."

"Sorry..." Naruto sat next to Kiba, remembering three years ago. _Pinned against the canyon's edge, Sasuke freed himself from Naruto with a kick. "You don't know how it feels to lose them!"_ Naruto sighed, the conversation now taking a languid pace. "I... wouldn't know about that."

"You never did have a family, did you?"

"No."

"Do you know about them though?"

"Nothing. I wish I did. Nobody seems to know. If they do, they won't tell me."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"No... and yes. I don't have anything to miss. Nothing real, at least. It's hard to miss something that doesn't exist. Like, do you miss your little brother who drowned in the rope-walk exercise at the academy years ago?" Naruto nodded at Kiba's confused face. "Exactly. You can spend a lot of time imagining stuff, like extra family, but it's never a serious concern to anybody. They've all got their real family and that's all they deal with. Thoughts about members who don't even exist go by as fast as any other fantasy. But for me... I always saw everybody with their parents, so I knew there was something missing, something I was supposed to have but didn't. I don't know what happened to them. A little over sixteen years ago, a lot of people were lost, some without trace. They might have been soldiers who died in combat, or villagers killed while trying to escape. Maybe it was a forbidden affair and they had to get rid of the evidence. Maybe they just didn't want me and abandoned me. I don't know, and it doesn't help to wonder. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time imagining I was with parents, and that they would hug me and tell me they loved me, and put me in bed at night, and give me presents on holidays. Things I'd seen other families doing when they didn't know I was peeping on them. But by the time I was six or seven, I stopped imagining. It didn't help me get by for real."

"So how did you get by?"

"The Third watched over me until I could live on my own. He didn't actually do most of the watching, but random assistants of his took care of me and he saw that I was OK by the end of the day. I was given the old apartment when I was five. He checked up on me every few days after that. But he was always busy... and nobody else cared."

"Wasn't there an orphanage?"

"There were hardly any... and none had space."

"Oh... yeah I'm way too old for one now, plus my sister is going out of her way dealing with mission overload for enough money that we can keep this place. I'm glad to have it, but I rarely ever see her, so... I spend all my time alone in here."

"Where's your mom?"

"I never did know my mom. All I have is a quick memory of her humming me to sleep during a stormy night. She was one of the ones who died sixteen years ago."

Naruto flinched. He understood from a logical point of view that he wasn't responsible for anything that happened sixteen years ago, but emotionally he still felt twinges of guilt when hearing of a loss due to the Kyuubi attack. "So... you're an orphan too, huh."

Kiba sighed. "Yeah..."

"You still had it though." Naruto exchanged curious glances with Kiba. "What was it like? Having a dad, I mean."

Kiba closed his eyes in thought for a few seconds. This was going to be a big one. "I loved him. He was everything I admired and everything I wanted to be. I mean, I loved reading all the cool superhero stories and stuff, but even with all that, I knew they were just fantasy heroes. My dad was a real one. He knew I was impressionable and he knew how to work with that. He'd always show off or make sure I was watching when he did cool stuff; little things like folding kunai and shuriken to bigger stuff like ripping apart a wall with his bare hands for an extra room downstairs... and competing with his teammates all the time. I remember once he was actually beaten in a race here, and his buddy was teasing, until he pulled off his backpack and dropped it on the table, collapsing it and shattering the concrete floor like glass. Think back to Rock Lee at our first chuunin exam. You should've seen his buddy's face. One time on a trip to another village, the group we were journeying with needed some firewood, and he punched down the nearest tree and ripped off all the main branches into a pile along the trunk before anybody even volunteered to do the search. He'd just act casual at some of the freaked-out stares he'd get doing those things, then wink at me when nobody was looking. He knew I was digging it. I always loved seeing how he intimidated people. He didn't say a whole lot, but when he did, you listened. Specially if he was upset. Heh, he could shake the house with his yells. You definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of his anger, I'll tell you that from experience. I mean, I think he was fair, and even when it was time for the strap across the back, I can tell you now he meant the best. But that was just between us. I knew people were scared to upset him, and I really leeched off that. I belonged to him, and anybody messing with me messed with him too. Heh, I took that cocky attitude everywhere, acting all like a brute. He wasn't all brute though, he was skilled too. He knew all kinds of cool and devastating techniques, and could be quick and quiet when he needed. He could also pound most of his comrades in a spar. He wasn't S-class, but he was working toward it. I thought he was by far the coolest guy around; a man's man among a bunch of lame pansies. He did cool missions, killed strong enemies, saved innocent lives, and took care of us all at once.

"When I wasn't pretending to be like that, I was trying for real. The first time I tried to bust up a log with my head, I think I was crying for days. Piercing fang wasn't that big of a success either. I tried to clear the back yard, but after taking off I just flipped sideways and dislocated my shoulder. I knew I had a long way to go, but I also knew he'd be there to show me through it.

"But even with all that, he was friendly too. I remember when I turned five. He was supposed to go on a long mission beginning on my birthday, but he arranged to put it off until early next morning so he could spend the evening with me. That's when he got me a little kiddy kunai and shuriken set and spent the remaining time showing me how to train with them. That was my first real step toward nin-dom, and first flirting with danger too. I mean, the stuff was kinda dull and wouldn't really kill people, but you could still gouge an eye out. I was so happy; I wanted to do something back. I decided to get up before he did next morning and get all his supplies packed and ready for him so he didn't have to deal with the hassle. He wasn't really a morning person, and I figured it would be way easier if he could just get up and go. Long story short, I cut myself dropping a box of shuriken, tore a scroll, spilled the poison... I completely trashed the place and needed some bandaging myself. I heard him getting out of bed. I think the smoke bomb going off was what got him up. I knew I couldn't clean up before he came down. I started to anyway, though, and that's just when he walked in. I was probably the most upset I'd been to that day in life. After all we did last night, I pretty much sabotaged his supplies. I tried not to cry, but I couldn't hold back tears. I was waiting for the wrath, but he just looked around the room, grinned, came over and picked me up and hugged me, said things like that were why he enjoyed being a father. I wondered about that one a lot, but I was too scared to ask at the time. I eventually figured it out though; when I got Akamaru, I loved having him around and doing things with him, even if I had to clean up after him until he learned where and where not to go. That's a different story though.

"Anyway... it was like having a teacher, leader, caretaker and friend all in one. He left me a lot, taught me a lot... and he was still in the process. I realized that he'd always be years ahead of me and always have something useful to share with me every time I entered a new phase of life, and I'd always have a new side of him to explore every time I thought I had him figured out. But now, that's not going to happen anymore. I finally feel what he said... when he was warning me not to make light of relations with people who could die at any time... about 'never' being such a long time."

Naruto looked ahead with a longing smile on his face as he listened to and thought over what Kiba told him. His thought turned toward Sasuke once again. "I think I can understand that. I've wanted to go to Sasuke for nearly three years now. The thought that he might be permanently lost to Orochimaru is always crossing my mind. I know how devastated I'd feel if I found out he was. But unlike you, I'd have a way to direct the anger and frustration."

"You two really did become great friends, didn't you?"

"The best, he told me."

"So what made him try to kill you?"

"At the time I didn't know. He just told me that being his best friend was why it was worth killing me. I couldn't believe it until he tried to thrust his chidori through me. For some reason, he changed his mind before the fight was over. I later found out from Jiraiya that Itachi told him the way to awaken the ultimate level of the sharingan was to kill your closest friend."

"That's an awful way to find out you're somebody's best friend."

"Yeah... but he didn't follow through with it, so I believe deep down he's still with us, and that he went to Orochimaru as the way to get the strength to kill Itachi, instead of doing like Itachi wanted."

"You really believe that, don't you?"

"Absolutely."

"How did you two become such good friends anyway? I remember you two loathed each other back at the academy."

"Heh, I never had friends back at the academy. Everybody made fun of me. I grew into the role though. Once we graduated, and our teams went through so much training, so many intense missions, life and death situations... all the rest that comes with being a team, I don't think there was any way to avoid it. We remained rivals, but the way we rivaled changed a lot. So... yeah."

Kiba paused for a minute, thinking back to academy days. "We were really jerks to you back then, weren't we?"

"Hehe, nah you guys were just being brats like me. We didn't know better."

"Naruto," Kiba looked him in the eye. "I'm sorry." The two stared at each other for a short but awkward moment. "Look, it's way late, but... stay as long as you need, OK?"

Naruto stared a few seconds, then nodded.

Kiba nodded in return, then got up and left to go to his room. 'This night sure went way different than I expected. I guess it's no surprise though. I should've known I couldn't just put all dad's stuff away. I haven't been able to for over a year, so why would I now?' He shut his door, stripped down to his boxers and crawled into his bed. 'I was hoping to drive him off by talking about dad's accident, but that totally backfired. Though, somehow, I don't feel stupid for telling him all those things. I always figured him to be the kinda guy I wouldn't tell anything to unless I wanted the whole class to know by next week. But now... he's obviously good at knowing what stays private. He may not be bright, but he's obviously got mental strength to go for so long without family in the face of everybody's putdowns and neglect. He never brought those things up at all, but it sounds like they've always existed to him. Was he always such a good talker or listener, and we only needed to ask? Not that I would have had anything like that to talk about until recently.' Curiosity over Naruto's true character beset Kiba as he faded from consciousness.

Naruto unmade the bed and climbed in, thinking over his new relationship with Kiba. None of his peers had apologized to him before. In fact, only Iruka ever had. He'd always figured he didn't need it and he could get along fine without it, as he always had. But now he felt a new and unfamiliar feeling. It wasn't something he could identify. He soon realized that what he wasn't feeling was any negativity toward Kiba. 'Who'd've guessed Kiba of all people would turn out to be so trusty? I suppose he was always loyal, but... I never imagined him as an honest friend. I sure don't have a lot of those around right now. Another would be nice.' The possibilities intrigued him. 'I guess I was wrong. Three years really can change a lot.' He stared at the ceiling a few seconds longer before closing his eyes. 'Maybe staying in the village won't be such a bad experience after all,' he thought as he also faded from consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any rights related to it._

Author's note:

_Well, this took a lot longer than expected. I've been moving the last few weeks, and it seems I miscalculated just how long it would take me to get all my stuff from one place to the other. I just spent 9 days doing nothing but packing, moving, eating and sleeping, then another 3 days digging through the pile of boxes, bags and furniture to clear enough space to set up the PC, and there's still much more to go. It's been really irritating having this chapter about 66 complete and then not being able to work on it for nearly 2 weeks straight._

_Anyway… thanks for the reviews so far. First attempts are always a bit nerve wracking when unleashing them to the masses and it's always refreshing to hear from people who don't think it's a bomb._

_I had a feeling I'd be making my first clarification note at the beginning of this chapter. Here's a short summary of why I worked Kiba's family the way I did. If this isn't a concern for you, skip to the story._

_When I was following the manga and the families were first introduced in the middle of chapter 137 during the Leaf invasion, everybody saw the two Inuzukas and thought "oh cool, there's dad and mom" (I suppose the determining factor was that the chests checked out respectively). It wasn't until the chapter 198 cover during the Sasuke retrieval saga that we found out from the side text that Kiba and the girl were "the Inuzuka siblings". That opened up room for debate regarding the parent, but at that point I was used to the character we thought was "dad" actually being dad, so I stuck with it. Plus, I was around for the 30-page "Tayuya is a man" debate, so I know these things are never truly settled._

_I realize the anime went further in portraying Kiba's family and solidifying the "mom" character, but I stopped considering anime changes or additions as legitimate when the show went primetime around episode 52. More disappointing than the censorship of the battles was the addition of an absurd amount of comedy filler not originally in the manga, which only served to destroy basically the entire feel and flow of the story and ruin the integrity of so many characters in the process. The mountain of a climax from episode 66-80 was turned into a molehill of more comic relief and dragged-out uselessness, and that's about when I reverted to manga purist mode. Not that I didn't eventually watch the rest of the show, and not that I think all the additions are bad (Orochimaru vs. Sasuke was a vast improvement, Gamabunta's "stay on my back" test was good and will make a short appearance later), but with so many inconsistencies introduced that merely showcased a total lack of communication between the animators and original author, I don't consider anime filler "official" anymore. I know there's still post-episode-136 filler going on (which is approximately when the time skip was supposed to occur), but I don't know if it further explores Kiba's family and I don't really care. _

_So, yes, I realize it's commonly accepted that it's Kiba's mom, but… just track with me, eh? I'm trying to stay as manga-based as is practical or useful, so as far as my particular story is concerned, Kiba's parent only appeared for that single page of chapter 137. I thought the manga by itself allowed enough room for interpretation that I'd be safe using "dad" without posting a note at the beginning of the story and giving away later events, so… sorry for any confusion, I was hoping it would be obvious I purposely chose to have things the way they were._

_But, here's the thing: even if Kiba had been given an entire family tree complete with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and sister's boyfriend's father's roommate's ex's cousin third-removed, I would have changed it to what it is now and slapped an AU tag on the description (not that a few familial changes really alter the entire universe, but that tag gets thrown at the slightest changes in attitude or hairstyle, so whatever). The full reason would be spoilerific, so I'll just say it's what I find necessary for the relationship to develop the way it does. I really couldn't make it work any other way. You'll see (and hopefully agree) as the story progresses._

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Style Index:

"Spoken Dialogue."

'Thoughts.'

_Flashback, occasional emphasis in dialogue or thoughts, time passing._

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**Restricted: Chapter 2**

_Published: April 26, 2006_

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Kiba blinked his eyes, rubbing out the sleep and looking at the dark gray sky beyond his window. 'Woke up early?' He looked at the clock next to his bed. Six o'clock, as usual. 'Squally weather then.' He slid off the side of his bed, stood up and took a deep breath as he reached for the ceiling, stretching his body to its vertical limit. "Oi," he grumbled as he relaxed and stood still for a minute, mustering the energy to take his first steps of the day.

He stumbled over to the mirror atop his dresser and stared silently at the reflection for a short moment, his only movement being the soft rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. His face looked pale and nondescript, hair ratty and in desperate need of combing. He took one more deep breath, then clenched his hands and slammed his fists together in front of his waistline, forcing his muscles to flex outward in every direction. He constricted his legs and held his pose until his vision began to clutter with dark sparks. Shaking himself from the rush, he pushed his arms downward and tightened his pecs across his chest to see the striations in the center deepen into ripped muscle, then tensed his stomach, watching as his abs condensed flawlessly into six solid sections. He turned his body around, keeping his head faced over his shoulders and eyes on his reflection, watching his back squirm about as he pushed his shoulder blades together and pulled them apart. Facing forward again, he held his arms sideways at shoulder height and brought his fists toward his head, his biceps swelling to rounded peaks and triceps forming what he considered a favorable curve beneath. 'Bang!' He dropped his pose and caressed the bottom of his chest with his hands, soon running them over his stomach, then around his waistline. He turned around one last time, flexed his rear and ended his caressing session with a slap on his buns. 'Shyeah, you're still a sexy mofo, even this early in the morning,' he grinned to himself.

He headed for his door, then decided to put on his pants and fish netted patchwork shirt when he remembered his unexpected guest. 'Probably the only one who wouldn't give me a second glance or thought undressed like this.' Once dressed, he stepped across the hall and knocked on Naruto's door. "Oi, you awake?" No answer. "Naruto?" He knocked again, this time noticing that the door was cracked open. "Naruto, you in there?" Still no answer. He opened the door to find the room empty. 'Uh oh. Where'd he go?'

He walked down the hall to observe his sister's room and the bathroom. 'Still in their usual condition,' he sighed in relief, hurrying down to the kitchen. 'Nothing's burning,' he observed as he entered, even more relieved. He ensured all the food and kitchenware were in place and undisturbed, then walked across the hall. 'Living room looks good… at least, as good as it ever does,' he thought as he inspected it. 'He must be in the dojo.'

He continued his search, walking down the main hall to the dojo door. A beam of light escaped through a small opening between the two sliding panels. He placed his fingers into the opening and quietly slid the doors open to reveal Naruto in the center of the room. He was dressed in his standard outfit and standing on his hands. His head was bent as far back as it would reach, which left him staring at the wall opposite the door. His body stood nearly upright, back slightly arched to balance knees that were also bent back, allowing him to touch his forehead with his toes. His peculiar position stretched his jacket slightly above his waistline, flashing Kiba a tanned, thick and sharp-cut midsection highlighted by two large blocks of muscle lining his stomach, stretching and flexing with each deep breath.

"…Um… Naruto?"

Naruto sprung into the air, snapped into a standing position and landed on his feet. "Hey Kiba how's it going what brings you here huh!" he grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

"…This is my house…" Kiba deadpanned.

"…Ah… right so hey sleep well last night hmm?"

"…Yeah. You?"

"Great! Hey this is a cool room you should decorate the rest of the house like this!"

Kiba stared at Naruto just long enough to let him know that he wanted to know what he was doing but was going to let him off for now. He observed the room whose design he had never given a second thought to. It was a large open area with four wooden supports at the four corners of a raised fighting area occupying the center of the room, leaving wide walkways around the sides. The raised floor was covered in various patterns of yellow mats; the walkways had darker orange mats with various wooden benches along various sections of wall. The walls were covered in a yellow/orange/tan stucco/bulletin board material, highlighted with wooden supports. Two wooden window casings in a grid pattern held tiles of white-frosted glass on the wall opposite the door. Tan panels that could be hung from the ceiling to separate portions of the room were also piled along that wall. 'Now that _he_ points it out, I suppose even the wood looks orange-stained.'

Kiba then imagined the rest of his house and belongings colored in various shades of Naruto-approved neon orange. "Not on your life."

"…Ah… well uh, how's about some breakfast then? I'm famished!"

"C'mon," Kiba nodded toward the kitchen, leading Naruto to a seat at the table and stepping into the U-shaped food preparation space next to the dining area. "I can make some different rice dishes; regular, fried, sushi, kare raiso, chazuke or kayo. Those are usually good for breakfast."

Naruto walked over to Kiba, looked briefly at the food, at the cooking utilities, then at Kiba, as if he were a young child being shown a brand new concept for the very first time.

"…What?" Kiba asked, puzzled at Naruto's confusion.

"…You cook?"

"…Yes? Is that a problem?"

"Heh," Naruto chuckled. "No, not at all."

"What did you expect?"

"Nothing," Naruto shook his head, again looking like he was trying to put two and two together. "Heh, I just never imagined you as the cooking type, that's all."

"Naruto, any normal human being learns to make basic meals by the time they can move."

"…I know, it's just, like… have you ever walked by a house for thousandth time and then noticed there's a tree in front of it? I mean, like, admitted or seriously thought 'hey, there's a tree there'? And you've always known it, but finally realized it? It's kinda like that."

Kiba kept his blank stare focused on Naruto. "What do you want?"

"…Uh, sushi's cool, thanks. I'll just… have a seat," Naruto pointed at the table and took his seat again.

Kiba gathered the food and supplies and began making breakfast.

Naruto fidgeted in his chair, looking between Kiba's back and the table for a few moments. "Hey, don't you wear an apron?" he finally asked before ducking a handful of Udon noodles aimed at his head. "Alright, alright, I get it, you suck at mornings." He ducked another handful of noodles. "So, what's your day looking like?"

"Go to academy, see exactly what Kurenai recommended my team for, gather with her for team training, come home."

"Oh, you've gotta go there too?"

"You are also?"

"Yeah, Tsunade told me to go there since I've got nothing else to do."

"You can't do solo missions?"

"Oh, Sakura didn't tell you?"

"No, she was barely here for a few minutes. What happened?"

"Well… uh…" Naruto trailed off. 'Oops! Should've realized he might not even know. Oh well, I suppose after last night, I can trust him with _some_ details,' Naruto reasoned. "The village administration put a restriction on me. I'm not allowed to leave."

"What! Why?"

"Well…" Naruto thought of the most inconspicuous way to explain his circumstances. "Basically, there's a dangerous group of people who want something from me."

"Don't tell me… you went into another sacred village and defiled their altar too?"

"Huh?"

"Or kicked one of their gods down the street?"

'Kicked one of their… right, those stupid cats!' Naruto remembered his lunch discussion with Kiba and Ino yesterday afternoon. "Oh! Heh, no no, not _quite_ like that," he said, relieved at the pushover of an escape Kiba unwittingly gave him. "This isn't just some angry mob, they're a group of missing nins and some of them are believed to be S-rank, though we don't know for sure. The village thinks keeping me here will discourage any abduction attempts, or that even if they try, they'll be easily driven off."

"Must be something important, huh?"

"Kinda… they could do a lot with it, I suppose. But, of course, _with what_ I can't tell you. I don't want _you_ on their hit list too, especially now that you're being such a sweetie to me," Naruto finished with a light tease.

"Tch. Whatever. As long as you're not some in-disguise super-fiend space lord commander hell-bent on the destruction of the planet, you're cool with me."

Naruto looked at Kiba's back as he finished preparing breakfast. 'Do you really mean that, Kiba?' he wondered.

Kiba brought the food to the table and sat across from Naruto, noticing his longing stare. "What?"

"Well… you remember what I said about Sasuke last night? About still believing he'd come back with us if we could give him the chance?"

Kiba nodded.

"On our last mission, we encountered some of the people from that group I mentioned. Sakura and an old hag from Sand village killed one of them, and another tried to take out our teams with a suicide attack. Kakashi saved us, but the one Sakura killed, Sasori, gave her some information before dying. There is _supposed_ to be a high-level spy in Orochimaru's subordinates. One of Sasori's spies, and he was supposed to meet that spy in five days starting today. We were going to go to their alleged meeting spot in disguise as Sasori, abduct the spy and interrogate him… Do you know about Orochimaru's immortality technique?"

"He came up with some kind of permanent Shintenshin, right?"

"Uh… yeah, I guess you could call it that. It's not really immortality because he can still be killed, it's just that he can jump into a younger body when his current one grows old or weak, so he won't die of old age. But, he can only use it every three years at the most. It'll only be a few months until he can do it again, maybe even less. I don't really get him, but he thinks learning all known skills and techniques will make him the supreme being, so you can see why he'd want a body with a sharingan… Sasuke said he knew what he was getting into, and I think he thinks it's the only way left for him to become strong enough to kill Itachi after he refused to kill me, but we wanted to show him, that's not true. So… you can see why Sakura and I were so excited and anxious to do this mission. It's the one we've been training for, planning and waiting to do for nearly three years, and now… I can't go," Naruto finished, staring at his food.

'Sasuke.' Kiba wanted to give Naruto some kind of reassurance when he saw his look of dejection, but found he couldn't muster the feelings no matter how he tried looking at the situation. "Naruto… don't take this the wrong way, but I have some trouble sympathizing with you. I mean, I understand the part about rescuing a friend, but after what happened on our retrieval mission, the fact that nearly three of us died, and that he still ran off after all that… I have very little respect left for him. I admire your dedication, but I can't share in it. He really did a good job showing how badly he wanted to leave, through his defection and the way he brushed all of us off without a care for what would happen when we pursued, and especially how he fought you off when you tried to bring him back. So, I let him leave."

Naruto nodded. "I understand. I can't blame you. Emotions aren't always rational. All I see is a friend who needs his old friends back, but thinks he can't have them. Circumstances be damned, I want everything back the way it was and I'll do anything for that to happen."

"Really? You haven't run off after Sakura yet. Why's that?"

"She asked me to trust her with this one. And I do. So that's what I'm doing."

Kiba thought for a moment. "Man… you think it's surprising that I can cook. I'm shocked you haven't demolished the village administration and become a missing nin."

"Heh, yeah, I guess I've gotten a little better over the years despite ero-sennin's antics."

"Yeah, it's almost like you've developed half a brain."

"Without a dou… er, hey!"

Kiba shifted his legs to dodge a shin kick from Naruto. "But seriously, Sakura's intense and won't give easily. You shouldn't worry."

"I'm not."

"Good. I hope for your sake she's successful. Not to mention, I wouldn't mind giving that bastard a hard smack or twenty upside the head," Kiba grinned with the last remark, relieved to see Naruto crack a smile at his amiable jab. 'At least he can still take a tease about something so serious to him. Good character.'

The boys finished eating their breakfast in silence.

"Ah! Now I actually feel like doing stuff," Kiba said after eating his last bite. "I've gotta tend to the dogs and do my morning training routine. Hey, you never told me what you've got planned today."

"All I've gotta do is check out the academy briefing and report to Tsunade. I'll finish my morning warm-ups soon and then go do some training too. Heh, I'll probably have a load of training time around here, that's most likely what I'll be spending most of my days doing."

"Alright," Kiba got up and took the dishes to the sink. "I'm meeting my team a little early outside the auditorium. Wanna join us?"

"Sure, good idea."

"Here…" Kiba opened the utensils drawer, removed the tray, dug up a set up keys and tossed them to Naruto. "House keys," he said as Naruto caught them, staring quizzically between the keys and Kiba.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Duh. Since I won't always be around to let you in and out. Try to keep it locked."

"No, I mean… you're being so trusty all of a sudden. I _know_ you don't just open your house, let alone give house keys, to everybody who might happen to be around for a while, right?"

'I wish I could say I had more than a random hunch that I can't even explain,' Kiba thought after a moment. "I guess I haven't had a fresh start in a while. I've had a lot of time to find reasons not to trust other people. You, I don't know. You're still a mystery. It's a big leap of faith. So far, I'm not regretting it."

'Makes sense, I suppose,' Naruto nodded. "Thanks, Kiba. I'll be sure you won't!"

"Yep," Kiba acknowledged. '…Provided I grade you on effort alone, I'm sure I won't.'

Naruto grinned and ran back to the dojo, leaving Kiba to his thoughts as he continued cleaning up. 'Heh. Why _am_ I being so trusty? It's a good question, Naruto. You're obviously not the person I thought you were. You intrigue me. That's not a feeling I feel very often. Nothing much has interested me the last year, but you… you really _are_ a mystery. You've obviously hidden a lot. I want to find out what I've been missing.' Kiba finished cleaning and leaned back against a countertop, crossed his arms and stared into the floor. 'But why you, of all people? I come across enough other and more extreme people on a regular basis and I couldn't care less what their lives are all about or what secret plans they're organizing or if they're some hentai tentacle beast in disguise… so why you, ya dolt? Why you?' Kiba pondered the question as he left to prepare for his day.

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It was nearly ten o'clock. The early morning's dreary weather was making way for a bright and sunny afternoon. Grey clouds dissipated to let yellow beams of light scatter the villagescape. Naruto stepped into the academy grounds, surveying the establishment. 'Looks like they've upgraded a bit,' he observed, noting some additions to the main school building and some additional buildings nearby. He headed for the one he saw various other ninja either entering or gathered around. On his way, he passed the main entrance and looked to the woodsy area at his right. 'My swing…' he thought, remembering the times he spent sitting by himself during daily free time. He shook the lonely memories as he approached the large tan brick building whose door banister he could now read as "auditorium".

As soon as he reached the main door, he turned around to see Kiba running through the main gate with Akamaru jogging beside him.

"Whew! Nothing like a good race around the village to start the day!" Kiba exclaimed as he caught up to Naruto and slouched forward, placing his hands on his thighs to take a short breather.

Naruto observed Akamaru running around Kiba, wagging his tail furiously. "Hey Kiba, I think your dog's in better shape than you."

Kiba was about to retort when Akamaru stopped circling Kiba and yipped proudly at Naruto. Kiba stopped panting and glared at the dog. "Traitor," he mumbled.

"Hehe. Dog-licked," Naruto grinned. "Get it?"

"Hmph, I'll show you dog-licked. Akamaru!" Kiba pointed at Naruto. Akamaru stood on his hind legs, threw his arms over Naruto and launched a slobber attack on Naruto's face.

"Ick!" Naruto screamed cries of disgust as he fended off the giant dog.

"Alright, good enough, let him go," Kiba instructed after the ruckus continued for nearly half a minute.

"Plech! Dog germs! I've been poisoned!" Naruto spit and gagged as he wiped his face off with his sleeve. Akamaru whimpered and laid beside Kiba.

"It's about to start, let's get going," Kiba nodded toward the auditorium entrance. "Wait here, Akamaru. This shouldn't take too long." Akamaru announced his compliance with a loud bark.

Naruto and Kiba entered the auditorium. It sported a medium sized theatrical setup, with columns of seats rising up row per row on either side of the walkway that led from the entry door to the front stage. Kiba spotted Shino and an abruptly tension-ridden Hinata waiting for them in the first row on the right and dragged a moping Naruto to a seat next to them and in front of Shikamaru, Ino and Choji. "Sorry I'm late," Kiba said to his teammates. "I had an unexpected run-in with _this_," he pointed at Naruto.

Naruto was about to snap back when he noticed who was sitting next to Kiba. "Hey, Hinata! You feeling better today?"

"Y-yes… th-thanks, Na-ruto-kun." Hinata blushed in embarrassment at the memory she wished would be forgotten.

"Sorry for sneaking up, I didn't think I'd scare you like that." Naruto grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's o-ok." Hinata quickly looked down at the floor.

'Ugh, still as dense as ever,' Ino thought to herself. 'If I weren't so busy trying to awaken a heart of romance in Shikamaru, I'd deal with Naruto too.'

"Hey, hey! So do you guys know what this is about?" Naruto asked anybody willing to answer.

"No idea." Ino closed her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "Shikamaru's got one of his usual crackpot theories though." She looked over at Shikamaru and poked him in the side.

"With our total forces still greatly diminished from the war, we need more ninja than ever before with more skill than ever before. The academy as it is can't turn out replacements fast enough. Even when they stopped cutting the graduates by two thirds, the number qualified to be genin was still less than half the class. Jounin teachers are in short order, and some important missions are still being sacrificed to provide them. The academy is probably going to ask for volunteers to help train students during or outside of class so that we can restore our numbers and strength as quickly as possible."

Naruto winced at Shikamaru. "Where do you dig all that up anyway? Doesn't it hurt to think so much? You're going to wear out that _great brain_ of yours soon enough." A quick exchange of glances between the former schoolmates was enough; no retort was necessary.

Several chuunin academy teachers began to line up at the back of the stage, shortly followed by a tall, brown fluffy-haired, spectacle-wearing, tan-clad jounin whom few recognized. "Greetings, Leaf genin and chuunin," he announced, signaling the audience to be quiet. "My name is Shima, and I am the new academy principal as of this school year. All of you are gathered here by recommendation or nomination of a jounin or higher rank ninja who thought you were capable of performing the task that I am going to offer you an opportunity to volunteer for."

Shima then proceeded to explain exactly what Shikamaru suspected.

"…As I and the current teachers follow students' progress this year, we still don't expect to see more than one third of the graduating class prove themselves worthy genin. This was the case last year, in spite of removing the one third graduation limit. Unfortunately, our resources and staff are completely maxed out. To make this year a greater success than last year, we're going to need your help.

"For those willing, we would like you to spare at least a few hours a week, more if possible, working with a student of your choice. You will work with your previous academy teacher and help in their class specifically. You will be given a chance to evaluate the class and a chance to show your qualifications to the class. Your choice of student need only be the one you believe you can best work with. Training outside of class is preferred, though it may be recommended during class in cases where catch-up is necessary or other special attention is required.

"The recommendations and requirements should have been explained to you by your jounin sensei or those who recommended you, but I'll state them again so that everybody knows exactly what we need from you. First: a firm understanding of ninja basics. As you are all graduates and currently employed ninja, this should not be an issue. Second: an ability to explain and teach those basics by example. Should you feel yourself lacking in this area, your previous academy teacher will be able to help. Third: time. This is to be worked around your schedule as much as the students' schedules. Allowances will be made for missions that require you to leave the village for extended periods of time.

"Finally, do not be afraid to try. Every new activity provides some initial awkward hurdles to jump, but once you get into the habit, you may find yourself feeling quite comfortable. I can speak from experience. Ten years ago, I migrated to Leaf from Inaga, a small island below the Mist country. While life was peaceful there, it was also purposeless beyond self-survival. I wanted to accomplish more, and so I set out to a place where I was told I could make a difference. Two things were left behind though.

"I had to leave my home. My country was a place where I was comfortable. I knew the dialect, knew the culture, and liked where I lived. My people were my friends and my community. I was respected and well known. I was safe. My extended family was important to me. I had no wife or children, so I enjoyed my aunts and uncles, my cousins, and all of my other family members.

"More to the point, I had to leave what was comfortable. I was going to a place completely new to me, and pursuing a lifestyle completely new to me. I was trying to have a chance to develop self-confidence, build character, have the kind of experience that would turn me into a better person, and, as I ultimately found most fulfilling, guide others in that same experience.

"First stepping into an academy class where I was older than the teacher, even though it was a class specifically for adults, was a rather mortifying experience. But it was also a humbling one, and in the end, a very satisfying and fulfilling one. Even more than that, it was a motivating and inspiring one. I couldn't keep the experience for myself; I had to share it with others. I wanted to help grow others in the same way I had been grown. I soon became part of an ongoing cycle of learning and teaching which is absolutely foundational to keeping our village functional and prosperous. Now I wish to offer you a chance to be part of this cycle as well.

"Have a look at these people behind me. Are they not the people, other than perhaps family, who played one of the main roles in guiding you to where you are now? The people who praised you when you accomplished something commendable, corrected you when you blundered, disciplined you when you stepped out of line and gave you the necessary skills to start you on the path to where you are now, sometimes by being an instructor, sometimes by being a friend, and sometimes by just being there? Think about the impact these people have had on your life, and where you would be without them. Now I wish to offer you a chance to have a similar role in somebody else's life.

"In my own experience, it hasn't been any big incidents or fancy acts that brought about permanent positive progress in teaching a student; rather, it's been a consistent succession of small, spontaneous occurrences and 'A-ha!' moments which all add up in due time. I know it can be an intimidating initiation, but as you observe this continued string of changes stemming from a little thing you did previously, you'll find yourself enjoying your role in no time.

"I encourage you to take a step of faith. You'll discover things about yourself you never knew. Your old teachers will be there to help you when needed, so you'll have the proverbial lifeline available should you need it. Before I open the stage for sign-up, are there any final questions concerning what was covered, or perhaps something I might have neglected to mention?"

Several hands rose. Shima pointed to a heavily-bandaged man in a gray outfit. "Is this a paid mission?"

"No. That is the implication of volunteer work, and as has been stated, resources are at their max."

Half the hands went down. Shima pointed to another ninja in the crowd. "What if we get off to a good start but unforeseen circumstances prevent us from ever returning for the rest of the school year?"

"Again, this is simply volunteer work. As academy staff, we're glad to receive any input at all. You and your student can handle those circumstances on your own terms. We believe _any_ level of input, regardless of total, is better than none at all."

A few more hands went down. Shima continued picking questions to answer. "Is there anything we _can't_ teach?"

"It is preferable to start with the basics, however you may go further, or even specialize, if you believe your student is ready."

"Can we train more than one?"

"No. The program encourages consistency over time. Of course, you can still make other friends and do what you will with them in your spare time, but no other training will be officially acknowledged."

"Can we continue after school is over?"

"The program officially ends when the academy year ends, however I would hope your individual relationship lasts a lifetime."

Shima answered the personal questions of the remaining few. "Are there no others?" He paused for a minute. "Very well. The stage is now open for sign up." He thanked the audience for their attendance and departed for his office.

A few headed immediately toward the stage and a few headed immediately toward the exit, while the majority sat in their seats and discussed with their friends.

"So, this is what the old hag thought I should do," Naruto mused to himself. "Damn, she was tricky with her Hokage prep speech. She still thinks I'm that big of a sucker!"

"I wouldn't doubt it," Kiba goaded.

"Psh, shut up! And besides, she's right. I _do_ need this if I'm going to train a new generation!"

"Oh please… the thought of you training a single person alone will have the entire village evacuating in fear."

"Hmph! I'll have you know that any student under _my_ leadership will naturally rule the class, and at the very least, dominate any student under _your_ leadership."

"Heh! You're on."

"Bet?"

"Bet!"

Naruto and Kiba jumped up and began walking toward Iruka when they realized nobody else was following them.

"Hey, what about you guys?" Kiba turned back to ask.

"Yeah, what about you guys?" Naruto echoed.

Not to be outdone, Shino stepped forward. "If you two can accomplish anything productive, there's no reason I can't."

Naruto and Kiba glared at Shino.

Shikamaru sighed. "Even if I weren't already occupied with setting up the next chuunin exam, there's no way I'd want to deal with some hyperactive brats for any amount of time on any day. Talk about troublesome."

"What kind of talk is that! Where's your village spirit? Where's…"

"Naruto," Ino interrupted before Naruto had the chance to draw the entire auditorium's attention, "some things never change. While everybody else was training and getting stronger, Shikamaru was staring at clouds and getting lazier."

"And besides, I told you, I'm already occupied with setting up the next chuunin exam. I only came here cause Asuma made us attend as a team so that I would know what Ino and Choji might get themselves into. Now if you don't mind, I have to get back to the ninja administration office and catch up on the time I lost coming here." Shikamaru stood to leave. "Oh, and whoever else goes with Naruto, see that he doesn't send the academy into apocalyptic oblivion his first day back."

"Aye!" Kiba gave a thumbs-up while Naruto scowled as Shikamaru headed for the exit.

"I don't know which of you two are worse," Naruto pouted.

"Is worse," Shino corrected.

"ALL OF YOU!" Naruto threw his fists into the air.

"Hey, leave us out!" Ino signaled to Hinata and herself. "We just deal with these guys, we don't egg them on!"

Naruto's attention focused on the two girls previously forgotten to him. "Oi, you two! Are you coming with us?"

"What, and pass up an opportunity to share my incredible skill, wit and sexiness with a new class of aspiring wannabes? Of course!" Ino elbowed Choji in the arm. "C'mon Choji, let's go!"

"Ahh… I don't know Ino. I never learned much of anything beyond the graduation basics. My only worthwhile techniques are clan specialties, and I barely made chuunin with those. Plus, my family's still low on the financial front, so I need to take as many paid missions as I possibly can, even if they're just spare-time D-ranks. I won't be able to give any consistent help to anybody. I think it's best if I pass."

"You've been low on the financial front for three years now! Aren't you guys recovered yet?"

"We're getting by, but we still haven't been able to rebuild the majority of our property when it was ruined in the war. Our clan's training will be lagging until we accomplish this, so we need this done as soon as possible."

"Isn't your other family renting places anyway?"

"That's exactly why this is taking so long. Almost all the income goes to rent and food with hardly any left for savings."

Ino was going to chide him for the food comment, but reconsidered given their location. "Oh well. Good luck on your missions, Choji! I'll see you for the next big one!"

"Thanks…" Choji began to leave, but turned back to add, "I'm proud of you guys. You've got some courage, taking this on. Good luck to you too!" The group thanked Choji as he followed after Shikamaru.

"Hinata?" Naruto noticed the girl hadn't spoken, or perhaps even moved, since the presentation.

"I… I don't know… I'm not really, a, teacher type, a-and…" Hinata squeaked as Naruto came over and put his hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eyes.

"You heard what Shima said, right? Just get started. You proved yourself to be a great ninja and a good inspiration so many times before I left three years ago, now you're a chuunin and that alone is obvious enough you've improved so much since then, more than enough to do anything you need to do here. I know you can do this. Do you?"

Hinata thought over her excuses for passing. She was indeed slow at getting into new things, but there hadn't been a thing she'd tried that she didn't succeed at. She had gotten into disciplined habits she never thought she could. She had won her family's respect, but most importantly, her father's. She had built her skills to a level superior to the average sixteen year old Hyuga, though her younger sister was still slightly more talented in family techniques. She had succeeded in all kinds of important missions and passed a chuunin exam without a single doubt. After all she had been through her first four years as a ninja, she had no reason to doubt her success in this. Plus, she'd be working with Naruto and might even get a chance to show off some of her new talents to him in the process. "Yes," she said, speaking with a confidence she hadn't had since earlier talks with Naruto over three years ago.

"Good! Let's go sign up!" Naruto pulled Hinata out of her chair and ran ahead of everybody to Iruka's spot on the stage. "Oi, Iruka-sensei! Sign us up!"

Iruka saw the other four gather behind Naruto. "Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, Yamanaka Ino, and Hyuga Hinata… you all wish to volunteer?"

"Yes," the group answered simultaneously.

"Are there no others?"

"Choji needs missions and Shikamaru's being a lazy bum," Naruto informed, earning him a smack up the back of his head from Ino.

"Shikamaru's setting up the chuunin exams, idiot!"

"Still, he said even if he wasn't, he wouldn't bother with this anyway! He's a lazy uncaring sloth, that's what counts."

Iruka interjected before Naruto and Ino turned the stage into an arena. "Very well then, I'll report this to Shima. Meet in our old classroom in about an hour. I'll talk with you individually and at length there. And… thanks to all of you, this will be greatly appreciated." The group exchanged nods with Iruka as he left stage, leaving them standing amongst the remaining chuunin academy teachers and volunteers.

"Well, what now?" Ino asked.

"FOOD! I'm starving!" Naruto yelled.

"I'm with Naruto," Kiba said.

"Pass!" Ino said. "One lunch with you slobs was enough for this year."

"I'll be leaving as well," stated Shino.

"And where are _you_ going?" Naruto questioned suspiciously.

"Places." Shino disappeared, leaving Naruto's fist to fly through thin air.

"C'mon, don't worry about him, let's get some food." Kiba pulled Naruto toward the exit. "Where ya wanna go, anyway?"

"Ichiraku's, where else!"

"Whatever. Lead the way." Kiba followed Naruto, listening to him blather about the greatness of the ramen stand all the way there.

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In the lounge outside principal Shima's office, the teacher who arrived prior to Iruka was called in to discuss his recruits, while Iruka waited next in line, thinking back to the meeting that took place before today's presentation.

_Shima had just finished explaining his Hokage-approved program to the academy teachers._

_"…This program, however, has a second purpose, one which much be concealed by all leading it. Since many of those volunteering will eventually apply as jounin instructors, it will provide future promoters with an unhindered view into the volunteers' current upholding of the seven principle values ordained by the First and still taught in the academy today: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. Your job will be to create a record of each volunteer for those promoters to review."_

_"But wait," a stocky woman with short brown hair interrupted, "before you get to the recording process… I don't understand the 'no pay' decision. If the goal is to help as many students as possible, shouldn't we be paying all the assistants as much as we can spare? Hourly pay would attract a lot more volunteers than free donation alone."_

_"I understand how that would make the most sense from an administrative point of view. However, you're missing the heart of the issue, and the issue is indeed the heart. The problem your method poses is the planning of virtue. Since unhindered generosity is the desired motivation of this program, consider this example. Any village of considerable size has its fair share of homeless street dwellers or otherwise poor beggars. Leaf is no exception, and on occasion I've been approached by some of them asking me for money to buy food. When I give them some money, or even take them to a restaurant, I am doing something good. Alternatively, if the village administration instates a law requiring me to pay a bill specifically to address the financial detriment of these people, charity transforms to duty and I no longer exercise a virtue but instead comply with a law. Avoiding punishment then becomes the source of motivation for the bill payers, even if those poor people still receive the same amount of income, or perhaps even more. Do you recognize the difference? In the first case, I made a free-will offering. In the second case, I complied with a law. It would be possible to expand this point into a speech on how this removal of virtue is the fundamental error of so many other hidden villages' plans to produce a paradise on earth and how their systems of having all forms of charity enforced by the village administration are fated to produce vice instead of virtue, but I digress. The force used to uphold laws can be a good form of punishment for misconduct, but it can't change the heart of a person. As teachers, you have no doubt experienced this truth when you scold a student only to later find them carrying on with the exact same misconduct as soon as they think you're not paying attention. Their desire to do good needs to be rooted in deeper sources of motivation than avoiding punishment, or it won't outlast your supervision._

_"As a further example, consider some of the orphan homes I've visited. We had one in Inaga. It was supported completely by free-will offerings and staffed under similar circumstances. As a result, it was like a real family for the orphans housed there and like a second family for the volunteers who worked there. All benefits and provisions were by virtue alone, and that fostered a true haven of love. As I journeyed on my way here, I came across many similar institutions that were once private but had been taken over by village authorities and were supported by taxation. The result was usually that the staff of such institutions were not much better at creating a loving environment than the ones who landed the children in the orphanage in the first place. For them, the children were just another duty or a means of employment. Their heart was in their career, not with the children. This, along with many other things, showed me that when authorities create a system of provision enforced by law, they typically undermine true love and other virtues that are dependent on freedom and which should be the foundation of such institutions. I'm not saying that private institutions can't be loveless too, but generally speaking and in the vast majority of cases, the removal of free-will offering on a voluntary basis causes true virtue to dissipate. A lot of modern authorities have imprinted this effect onto their subordinates' character to varying extents, the greatest of which can be seen in reports of escapees from totally authoritarian villages or countries like Hidden Sound._

_"So, the point of not paying the volunteers is to remove any ulterior motivation for serving, thus letting us see their true integrity by how much selfless service a loyalty to the village, honor toward its values, respect for its system, and duty toward future ninja will take these volunteers with enough personal courage to attempt the task in the first place. Like I said, this program has a second purpose. It is as much as test of the graduates as it is a service opportunity for them, and the test will only produce accurate results if we are able to let the volunteers act on their unhindered desires, thus the removal of all benefits and all punishments… beyond those of the standard village law, that is. Likewise, it's important for students to know their teachers are helping them because they want to, not because of any other reason. Until now, this will be something they have never had, as well as something that a few regular visitors to my office could benefit from. Now, do you understand my reasoning behind the 'no-pay' decision?"_

_The woman nodded her head._

_"As I was saying, you are to monitor the graduates' choice in student, their reasoning behind it, how well they teach their student and how well that student progresses under their tutelage. This will go on record should their application to become a jounin instructor arise."_

_This time, Iruka interrupted. "If this is recorded, shouldn't they know the true purpose?"_

_"No. Since this is unpaid volunteer work and thus unofficial, it can't be held _against_ them. However, it can be used in favor _for_ them during their application process as a form of 'extra credit', to put it in academy terms."_

'It's true, any anxiety on my part stems from a lack of trust in my former students, but I still can't shake the feeling that it will take all of my restraint to not interject what and what not to do.' Iruka snapped out of his thoughts as Shima's office door opened and the prior teacher stepped out, motioning Iruka to enter.

Iruka closed the door and took the seat in front of Shima's desk.

"Umino Iruka," he acknowledged. "Do you have any volunteers to report?"

"Yes, five. Uzumaki Naruto, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, Yamanaka Ino, and Hyuga Hinata."

"Five?" Shima raised an eyebrow. "The most for any individual teacher yet. Very impressive, you must have made a good impression on your students."

"Thank you."

"Although… about your student Naruto… despite my recent arrival in Leaf, word does travel regardless of law. I understand he is an object of great disdain among many villagers, and I understand why. I was not around for the attack sixteen years ago and I have no emotions connected to the incident, thus I have no opinion of the boy in that regard and I have no personal experiences with him either, so believe me when I say I'm asking this question absolutely objectively: do you really think it's wise, given the general attitude toward him, to allow him a position of such intimacy and influence in an academy student's life?"

"And I understand your implication by asking, but he has proven himself to everybody who's given him the fair chance, and such questioning only furthers my desire to recommend him so he can prove himself once again."

"Very well, it seems he's earned your trust and I believe you to be one of the better judges of character that I know. My concern wasn't a bad judgment on your part, but rather what kind of fiasco might arise if the family of the student he decides to work with goes into an uproar. I worry something like that might go directly to the Hokage."

"That would be great, since Tsunade-sama is the one who recommended him in the first place."

For once, the calm and composed Shima couldn't hide his surprise. "The Fifth herself put in his recommendation?"

"Indeed, I have it right here." Iruka pulled the slip out of his pocket and handed it to Shima, who inspected it and nodded his approval.

"I must admit, this is rather startling."

"Then I should probably tell you that a large part of the reason we have Tsunade-sama here as the Fifth is because of Naruto. When he and Jiraiya left to retrieve her, she was quite hostile to the idea and to them as well. But, in his usual way through a series of unusual circumstance, he was able to win her over. In the meeting, you talked about people doing things from the heart in love or doing things because of fear of punishment. Naruto has definitely worked his way into Tsunade's heart, and she will defend him from that point; not because of any law."

"Very well then. If both you and the Fifth are in favor of his participation, so be it."

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A cacophony of yelling, barking and stampeding footsteps signaled the arrival of Kiba and Naruto at Ichiraku's.

"This had better be all you made it out to be," Kiba said as they stopped in the street outside the stand.

Naruto ignored Kiba's doubting as he dragged him inside. "Hey old man!" he yelled at the owner.

"Good afternoon, Naruto!" he replied. "Always refreshing to see you around here on a regular basis again."

"Heh, you think _you're_ refreshed," Naruto said, taking a seat to the left of Kiba, "_I'm_ the one who had to go nearly three years without any good food!"

"So, I count on this keeping up then?" the owner replied, his face exuding his desire for a reply of 'definitely!'.

"Erm… yeah, I uh… just got replaced on a mission I was planning to go on, cause Tsunade thinks I'd be more useful around here, so I'll be regular again."

"Great to hear. Who's your friend here?" the owner nodded at Kiba.

"Kiba, and his slobbery mangy mutt Akamaru… who understands what people say freakishly well," Naruto added after a warning growl from the dog.

"Welcome, Kiba."

"Oi," he replied.

'Time to get the profits booming again,' the owner thought as he decided to waste no time getting down to business. "So, what'll it be?"

"One of everything, to start!" Naruto said.

"…And you…?"

"Um," Kiba looked at the menu on the back wall. "Same," he decided, not being able to make up his mind and not really caring.

"A wise decision for a first-timer," the owner complimented Kiba. "They'll be ready in a few minutes," he said as he called Ayame to the cooking area to help prepare the dishes.

"Heh heh," Naruto grinned. "Man, I'm gonna get my own official underling! How cool is that?"

"Not as cool as mine," Kiba remarked casually.

"PFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!" Naruto blew in Kiba's face. "You just wait, you'll eat those words. He's gonna rule!"

"Oh, you've met him already?"

"What? No, but I know _what_ I'm gonna get! He'll be really strong and have lots of stamina so I can teach him cool ninjutsu, he'll be witty so I can teach him good strategy and pranks, and he'll be good at all those academy games so I know he'll have good friends in the class. He'll like reading too, because that makes it easy for me to leave him with scrolls he can learn if I've got something else to do. He'll at least be OK when it comes to actual schoolwork, but that doesn't really matter so I don't care about it. And of course he's gonna work hard, have a good sense of humor, look good, and uh, lessee… a mohawk would be cool too, but I can give him one if he doesn't have it."

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Really now, I figured you'd end up with dead last again."

"Haha, no way! Those days are behind me now. I'm the new, elite, ultra-grade, top-skilled, strong, sharp and handsome Naruto! Don't you forget it," Naruto finished his brag by flexing his right arm at Kiba's face, dropping it when their lunch arrived a few seconds later.

'It's usually more memorable without a sleeve covering your arm,' Kiba shook his head as he and Naruto began eating and devouring respectively. "So, you're planning to nab the number one rookie and leave the rest of the scraps for us, huh?"

"Plech, number one rookie is probably gonna be a bloodline. I don't want some brat whose lifetime of special treatment and unearned privilege left him with the impatience of a five year old kid expecting the world to be delivered to him on the tits of a centerfold model. Specialized clan could be cool though."

"…Yeah… well, you might as well take him, you're going to need the head start if your brat is going to remotely rival mine by graduation day. It won't concern me, I could take the dead last and have him pummeling your brat in no time."

"Heh, you're just trying to get me to say I could do better than you if _I_ took dead last, then once I do, _you'll_ grab number one for yourself. Yeah, I saw your face after our bet, you're already planning to nab the top student. You wanna tie us back up at one to one and you're going to take any measure to do it."

"One to one? …The hell are you talking about?"

"Yeah, after I pummeled you at lunch yesterday, I'm leading with one to zero!"

"Leading _what_?"

"Our rivalry, of course!"

"…We have a rivalry?"

"I said 'of course', didn't I?"

"…"

"What?"

"Never mind," Kiba continued eating. "Heh, what do you think everybody else's brat is gonna be like?"

"Ino's is gonna be a loud, smexy, prissy, short-tempered girl with the most irritable attitude in class. She'll probably get even worse after she's done with Ino. Shino's… we'll probably never learn a thing about. In fact, they'll all most likely be close matches. Hinata's will probably be somebody who's shy, never says anything, hides a lot, gets scared every time a particle of air passes by, and who we won't even realize exists until she picks her. Yeah, she'll probably be really… weird. But she'll have potential, that's for sure."

Kiba sat still for a moment. "Hey Naruto."

"Hmm?"

"Yesterday, when I asked if you were just partially retarded or completely retarded, I was just teasing. But now, I'm serious. You really can't tell?"

"Tell what?"

"She _likes_ you, ya dolt!"

"Huh?"

"Look, I know you can't really tell what she's normally like because she always acts that way with _you_ around, but some things should be a big enough indicator, like the blushing for one, that she's got a pretty big crush on you and really admires you."

Naruto froze in his devouring.

'There, it's out. Surprise surprise, it didn't take a group effort and an elaborate setup with music, romantic decorations and giant confession banners like I thought it might,' Kiba sighed. "You've been an inspiration to her all along. She's always looked up to you, even in academy days. One big reason she trained and tried so hard was to catch your attention and earn your acknowledgement. I didn't really see what she was talking about all the time, but, I dunno, she told me some things like that, and… she said them a lot better." Kiba shook his head. "I probably shouldn't have tried to tell you those things for her, she wanted to say that and a whole lot more herself. So, forget it… but look, she _does_ like you, so, just keep that in mind and give her a chance, huh?"

Naruto took a quick glance at Kiba before focusing on his near-finished meal again. 'So, that's it… Hinata being weird all the time was her equivalent of me acting out around Sakura years ago… I never imagined…' It didn't take long for Naruto to begin imagining. 'A relationship like that would be a really nice thing now. I guess I only ever imagined doing anything like that with Sakura, but now that Kiba mentions it… I could probably get used to Hinata easily.'

Kiba's curiosity piqued as Naruto's expression turned from dreamy to sullen.

'But… something like that could never happen. Not with Akatsuki and who knows who else chasing after my special resident. Not to mention, could she even accept me knowing about it? Even if she did, the only reward she'd get is my usual treatment if we stayed here or a life of always watching our backs if we left. I've known long enough, I can't ask anybody to make that kind of commitment to me.' A jab in his side from a small piece of pipe broke Naruto out of his thoughts and nearly knocked him out of his seat.

"How about it?" Kiba pried.

Naruto glared at the offending object. "What's with the pipe?"

"Attention to detail. I didn't forget why you became satisfied with your training," Kiba said. 'Or the little bit of your waist I saw this morning,' he mentally added.

"Well… I guess I'd like to. I mean, it would take a while to get used to. But… now's not a good time. Like I said this morning, I've got some people after me, and I just don't think it's right to get involved with somebody like that until these people are taken care of and everything's resolved," Naruto said. 'Which will be never,' he acknowledged to himself.

"You know, that's actually some considerate thinking. I'm surprised."

"Of _course_ I can be considerate, you dummy."

"I was talking about the thinking part, but that's a nice bonus," Kiba jabbed, earning himself the physical equivalent with a chopstick to the cheek. "Anyway, I think you're right. Hinata's most likely going to pick somebody who needs a lot of work," he steered the discussion back on track. "She's probably got the best idea too."

"Well hey, monotone did say, we can either take somebody who sucks and get them to graduation level, or we could take somebody with a load of potential and get them to top level as fast as possible. Either one's equally good, right?"

Kiba sniggered. "Monotone?"

"What else would you call such a boring, long-winded guy? Mr. Exhilaration?"

"Haha, hell no! It's just been a while since I called everybody by nicknames like that."

"You sure seem to do fine with me," Naruto pouted.

"But that's universal," Kiba informed.

Naruto finished slurping his last bowl, stuck out his tongue at Kiba and ordered another round.

"I wonder if we can have them do chores? Your place could use a little touchup."

"Huh?"

"The brats. Don't you think, after we make them cool, they'd wanna show some gratitude and do us some favors?"

"Naruto, I don't think we're supposed to be picking up laborers. You'll probably get banned from the academy grounds if you get caught having them do stuff like that."

"Well, I uh… bah, you're probably right," Naruto turned his attention to his newly-arrived order and dug in.

'I'll just forget _that_ little discussion ever took place,' Kiba sighed.

"Hey, don't you want more?" Naruto asked.

"I've had quite enough. Watching you eat hasn't been the most appetizing thing ever."

"Hmph!" Naruto ignored the comment and continued eating.

_Ten minutes later:_

"MORE!" Naruto yelled at Ayame.

"You're ridiculous, you know that?" Kiba muttered to Naruto. "_I'm_ beginning to get sick to my stomach just _thinking_ about you eating all that."

"Hey, it's only number nineteen! This would've been close to the end of a regular meal three years ago, but I'm a big boy now!" Naruto straightened up, made a fist and thumped his chest. "I'm just getting to the main course!"

"Main course? Then what do you call breakfast this morning?"

"Oh, that… was breakfast?"

"…Yes, yes it was," Kiba answered cautiously, noting Naruto's expression change from surprise to guilt.

"Oh."

"'Oh'?"

"…Well, uh, I thought that was just all you wanted to cook, or you'd have your real breakfast at some place after you left."

Kiba slumped in expectation of the worst. "What did you do?"

"I didn't really _do_ anything," Naruto bit his lip and folded his hands together in his lap, "I just… ate the yakitori you had left over from whatever in the fridge." He winced at Kiba's reaction. 'Wide eyes… very scary…'

"_All_ of it!"

"Yeah," Naruto cracked a sheepish grin as he realized he probably did something he wasn't supposed to do.

Kiba clenched his fists, but thought better of using them. "YOU COMPLETE DOLT, THAT WAS MY DINNER FOR THE NEXT _WEEK_!"

"Aaah… heh, sorry, I'll buy you some more."

Kiba relaxed and heaved a long breath. Once again, he couldn't find it in himself to be truly angry with Naruto. His yelling was out of habit and shock, rather than anger. He watched as Naruto began to devour the new ramen bowls that had just arrived. "No big deal. I'll let you off this time, since you were clueless as usual. But next time, _ask_, got it?"

Naruto gave a thumbs up and a wink as he slurped up the remainder of his first new bowl.

"You know, I though I was the next big eater here after Choji, but I think so far today you've had enough for a regular family to live off for a week."

"Body like this needs maintenance," Naruto muttered through a mouthful of the second bowl.

"I refuse to believe you got that strong on ramen."

"Nope! I had to go without for basically the entire three years, so now I've got a load of catch-up to do! Which reminds me, MORE PLEASE!"

Kiba slapped his forehead and spun around, deciding that watching random passers-by would be an equally boring but much less distasteful sight.

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Naruto and Kiba entered their old classroom to find Shino, Ino and Hinata seated at a round table to the right of the desk Iruka sat at.

"Yo!" Kiba announced their arrival. "We're not late, are we?" He glared at Naruto.

Iruka looked up and shook his head. "No, you're a few minutes early. Have a seat and we'll begin," he motioned to the table.

Kiba sat next to Shino and Naruto took the remaining spot between Kiba and Hinata, glaring at Shino as he sat. Had he been able to interpret Shino's lack of expression as Team Eight could, he would have picked up on something akin to haughty amusement.

Iruka approached before any scuffles could arise. "First of all, I'm glad to see all of you here. As a teacher, it's always rewarding to see former students of mine growing into their potential, achieving their goals and dreams, and challenging themselves in ways I never imagined. And, as a friend, I'm honored to have taught you some of the skills and helped you gain some of the confidence that you've applied to make it this far. I'm grateful for all of your return visits over the years; they're always a reminder of why I do what I do. Now, all of you will have a chance to take on a similar role in another person's life, and here's where I'll explain how to go about this.

"As you were told, there are three requirements for your participation. Your presence here shows you expect to have the available time, and obviously you all have a firm understanding of ninja basics, but is there anybody who doubts their ability to explain and teach those basics by example?"

The group looked at each other, eventually shaking their head or answering "No".

"I noticed some hesitation in some of your answers. But don't worry, I'm always available should any complications arise. Plus, once you see the class, you'll soon have a good idea of whom you're compatible with. That brings us to the remainder of today's discussion. As Shima said, you'll have a chance to evaluate the class and a chance to show off your qualifications to the class. How you wish to go about doing that is up to you. I'll be working at my desk if you have any questions."

"Wait, what!" Naruto yelled at Iruka's sudden wrap-up. "You don't have any help to give?"

Iruka chuckled. "You thought teachers don't have to come up with their own way of doing things? Sure, all academy classes have the same end goals, but how they get there is up to each individual teacher. We all have to make our lesson plans based on our own strengths and weaknesses, and be capable of modifying those plans if the class isn't responding well. I gave you your goals; it's up to you to decide how to accomplish them. You volunteered to be a teacher. It's your job to teach; mine to supervise and see that nothing gets too out of hand. I'll be available to answer information-related questions. The rest is up to you. Good luck."

"Hmph," Naruto watched Iruka return to his desk, crossed his arms and looked at the group. "Well?"

The other four stared at the table top in thought. Shino was the first to break the silence. "Iruka-sensei?"

"Yes?"

"You said all academy classes have the same end goals. Have those goals, or your methods of teaching for that matter, changed since our graduation?"

"No, the only change in the last four years has been the one third graduation limit removal. My classes are run essentially the same as always."

Shino nodded and returned his focus to the group. "Here's a question you all should consider. Were you ready for your first true mission as a ninja?"

"As opposed to a fake mission?" Naruto jeered.

"I find it impossible to consider our initial D-rank missions as true ninja missions. To rephrase the question, were you ready for your first ninja combat mission? Be honest, all of you."

The group again stared at the table top in thought.

"No," Naruto was the first to answer. "Not at all. It was a disaster. I mean, we pulled through, but, it was a huge wake-up to what we had gotten ourselves into. Right from the start, we were practically paralyzed by the killing intent of the first jounin we faced. A few times, I nearly got myself killed trying to play hero. That was because I had no real comprehension of death. I learned it soon enough though. Sakura and I thought Sasuke was dead at one point. It was then that we both realized how meaningless it was to memorize those old sayings, about a ninja being emotionless. Forget that it was Sasuke who took those attacks aimed at me while I was out… we never did much but fight and argue, and then I recovered to him giving me his dying words. We all survived through a bit of… lucky circumstance, I suppose. But, once we found out that those seemingly simple things we believed in and counted on were useless, we broke easily. Even the enemy's death wrecked me. I spent a lot of my earlier years dreaming about killing so-called bad guys and getting rewards and recognition for winning battles, but… that wasn't a victory at all. There was no glory, and I felt as far from a hero as I ever had. We were a bunch of naive kids whose ninja hero fantasies got turned upside down. Everything that was supposed to be black and white turned gray. We weren't ready for killing and we didn't know what to do when our little mottos failed or how to react to each other when our lives were on the line and our true selves showed up."

Kiba looked at his own teammates, who seemed to recognize feelings familiar to Naruto's. "It was a similar experience for our team. I can't say that I was wrecked, because I grew up with my dad as an active combat-oriented ninja who told me a lot of awesome stories about his missions, but also made time to talk about the serious side of being a ninja. I always knew that a ninja was a trained killer before they were anything else, so my first threatening situation and my first kill weren't things that turned my world upside down, but I was still feeling funky for a few days after. I guess no matter how much you hear or learn, nothing ever totally prepares you for the experience."

"But," Hinata spoke, "in your case, and to an extent in mine, and Shino's as well, we had parents who taught us these things and helped prepared us for the experience by sharing their own experience. We never learned to handle that kind of stress in the academy. I don't know about you, Ino?"

"My dad's been a jounin my whole life, but he's lazy, probably from hanging around Shikamaru's dad too much, and he says it's best I experience everything for myself. He'll teach me family skills and that's it. My first combat was in the second round of the chuunin exam. It was an easy fight and nobody wanted to kill anybody. My main match in the preliminary was Sakura, so again there wasn't a serious death factor. But then I saw a lot of the other matches and realized just how far some of them would go if it weren't for the ref. So, I gradually picked up on the idea and got used to it during that time. After that, my first real fight wasn't a huge deal. But, I'll admit that if we had gone on a combat mission before the exam, we probably would've been as bad as Naruto's team."

"Then it's as I expected," Shino concluded. "Compared to the majority of hidden villages I'm familiar with, the Leaf is one of the only whose ninja academy turns out graduates suited for community service as well as combat. Most graduates of other villages' academies have the mental preparation and experience to handle combat-oriented missions equivalent to that of the average Leaf chuunin."

"Hey," Naruto interrupted, "what about _your_ first kill?"

"I threw up."

"…Er… wonderful," Naruto said. 'Why did I even bother asking?'

"As I was saying, the academy does little to prepare combat-ready ninja. This allows for a large amount of students infatuated with becoming heroes, as seemed to be Naruto's case, but in actuality are nowhere near cut out to be true warriors, as was also Naruto's case."

Naruto glared, but refrained from interrupting.

"What are you getting at?" Ino asked.

"A lot of Leaf genin are no more useful than a decoy in combat situation, and would be evacuated with the rest of the villagers if another invasion took place. My interest is in training a warrior, not a gardener or babysitter."

"Hell yeah!" Kiba agreed. "We need to come up with a class evaluation to weed out the true potentials from the fantasy dreamers. Something make-or-break."

"I remember what Zabuza told us during our first fight," Naruto said. "He talked about the graduation exam the Mist village academy held. It was a fight to the death between students. The winner graduated. The exam eventually ended when he killed most of the graduating class."

"Um, Naruto," Ino said, "don't you think that's a little bit, oh how should I say… _barbaric_, or perhaps _insane_, for a class evaluation?"

"I wasn't suggesting it! I was just saying, there's an example of an academy that makes sure kids who aren't serious about being ninja don't enter it and don't end up wasting the teachers' effort and time. We should set up an evaluation to make sure we aren't wasting our effort and time on somebody who will panic or quit once they realize what they're in for."

"If there was ever any memorable exam I took, it was Ibiki's test in the first chuunin exam," Kiba said. "Those examiners definitely had the intimidation factor down, even though they hardly said anything. I don't even think it was anything they did or didn't do. It was just obvious that they were the warriors and we were the wannabes."

Naruto made a stupefied face at Kiba. "No… written… test…"

"You dolt, don't make the same misinterpretation at my example when you got so upset at Ino doing it to yours. I was just saying, we need to have the same effect. Give the brats a show of how serious the true ninja business really is…"

"Oh! Yeah yeah, good idea."

"…And then see who can handle it and who can't. Watch the faces, you can tell if they're thinking 'oh, crap' or 'good, finally'," Kiba finished, then looked over his shoulder. "Hey Iruka-sensei?"

"Hmm?"

"Do we have to keep this in the classroom, or can we use some of the training and practice grounds around the academy?"

"We can go anywhere on academy property, but if you want to use a specific training ground, I'll have to register it in our name."

"Great! Now this is getting fun," Kiba's grin grew aggressive. "We'll catch them completely off guard at the very beginning. Rock and shock."

Naruto and Ino also grew grins of satisfied amusement at the thought.

Hinata cleared her throat. "Um, g-guys… before you get too carried away, I should s-say… I don't think the D-rank missions are a complete waste of time… I mean, I think it's important for a team to get familiar with each other and being around each other and working together before jumping into a combat mission, right? I know they could be more than civilian service tasks, but… still… also, I do agree, that we should be an example of proper ninja, but… I don't think it's wise to have the students scared of you when you finally pick them. M-maybe start out harsh… give a wake-up, like Naruto-kun said, but… be yourself too. I think you're all good enough as you are, without putting on a show the whole time."

"Hinata's words are wise," Shino stated. "However, the evaluation won't be a show. We need to duplicate combat stress as best as possible, gauge the reaction and go from there. Most students will say they're ready for combat if asked, but few will be. Kiba's suggestion is the only way to find out for sure."

"So we'll start harsh and ease up once we see if they're doing ok?" Naruto asked.

"It is my preferred method," Shino replied. "Are we in agreement?"

Kiba looked dejected at not being able to spend the entire day thrashing the class, but answered "yes" regardless.

"Agreed," Naruto said.

"Whatever… works for me," Ino agreed.

Hinata nodded her head.

"Now," Shino continued, "the best way to organize the progression would be individual leaders for five individual evaluations, going from Kiba, Naruto, Ino and myself to Hinata. Each individual leader can set the pace for the rest of us to follow if necessary, and that lineup will guarantee the desired progression. Not to mention, no matter the circumstance or end goal, it shouldn't be very long into the day before Naruto and Kiba return to their former roles as class clowns."

The two boys stared fiercely at Shino, who ignored the looks and proceeded to lead the group into a debate over how to run their class.

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Nearly an hour later, the group exited the academy.

"We'll meet in Iruka's classroom tomorrow morning half an hour before class then," Shino confirmed. The group nodded and split ways.

"Hey, Naruto, want to come practice with our team?" Kiba offered.

"Nah, I'll stay here for a bit. I gotta talk to Iruka again, then report to Tsunade. Dunno how long that'll take."

"Alright, see ya tonight," Kiba waved and walked away with his teammates.

Naruto walked back to Iruka's classroom and knocked on the door.

"Yes?"

Naruto opened the door and peeked through to see Iruka putting some files in his desk drawer. "Uh… hey, you got a few minutes?"

"Sure. Is something the matter?" Iruka asked Naruto as he approached the desk.

"Um… I was wondering… yeah… something happened last night."

"Are you OK?"

"Heh, yeah, nothing bad," Naruto chuckled at Iruka's motherly concern.

"Well, you sure look flustered," Iruka defended his alarm. "What happened?"

"Well… uh… it's like… Kiba told me he's sorry."

Iruka paused, not seeing a reason for concern over an apology. But, an apology "…for what?"

"Just… everything, I guess. We were talking about stuff, and then some academy things came up… like, how well I got along with everybody… or didn't… and he said he was sorry."

"I see… what did you say?"

"Nothing. He just told me I could stay at his place as long as I wanted, then we both went to bed cause it was so late. But then, I just felt… different. Nobody ever said sorry to me before, except you, but that was different, cause you knew everything. It's weird because it's not like I feel something, it's more like I _don't_ feel something. You know?"

"Yeah… I learned a good lesson in that from the Third after my graduation. It took me a while to fully comprehend it, but I eventually learned it by experience. Have a seat, I'll share it with you now."

Naruto pulled over a chair from their previous discussion table and sat in front of Iruka's desk.

"That feeling… that's freedom."

Naruto squinted. "Freedom?"

"Yes."

"…I don't get it. Freedom from what?"

"Tell me, how did you feel whenever somebody was rude to you? When they made fun of you, pushed you, insulted you, glared at you or ignored you?"

"Um… not good."

"You were hurt, correct?"

"Yeah."

"And what happened when you got hurt like that?"

"Depends. At first I didn't know what to do."

"You were confused, correct?"

"Yeah, but then, I realized what I could do."

"You tried to avoid it."

Naruto nodded.

"It's understandable. I think that ultimately, we all want to avoid pain. Emotional wounds are no different from bodily wounds. People make all kinds of diversions to avoid emotional pain. Some people refuse to think about certain things. Some people suddenly change subjects in the middle of a discussion. Sometimes they avoid actual people, places and things that may cause a hurt or remind them of a hurt. They build their entire lives around the hurt and dedicate their entire lives to avoiding the hurt. It usually ends up in denial. People deny that they were ever hurt or that they're covering anything up. If the hurt is big enough, some even develop a whole different personality to hide under. Correct?"

'He knows exactly what's going on,' Naruto nodded again, hesitant to admit. 'But man, I don't like being read into this easily… I feel kinda naked here,' he folded his hands cross his lap as a subconscious reaction to the feeling.

"That's how we both handled it, but we were in hiding, and to anybody who knew what to look for, we couldn't have been more obvious. 'It takes one to know one', they say… and, admittedly, it took me too long to see you. But, the more you learn about and experience hurt, the easier it becomes to see it in others. It's easy for people to deny it and say 'that's been taken care of', but even now I work with a teacher who laughs off some of his father's rejections by saying 'I was just a kid back then, I didn't know any better'. Then he cuts his father down whenever he gets a chance. It's obvious to all of us that he hasn't resolved those rejections, but he won't see it. That leaves him at the same point we were at… defeat.

"Denial only lasts so long. No matter how successfully you think you've buried the hurt, it will still show up in your behavior. From short tempers, over-sensitivity, shyness and jealousy, all the way up to maintaining an entirely fake personality… they're all the signs of unresolved hurt. If you deny you're hurt, you look everywhere but the right place for a way to change that behavior. You can go to new places, find new occupations, get new friends, make promises or discover a whole new purpose in life, but until you deal with the root of the problem, every attempt to change will end in defeat.

"As the defeats pile up, it seems like things will never change or never get any better. Stuff keeps happening that makes you realize all the progress you thought you made wasn't any progress at all. You'll start to feel completely hopeless, and that can either be very bad or very good. That's usually the point where people either seek help or run away from the problem entirely. Some people who can't see any better circumstances in their life often end it. That's the ultimate power of unresolved hurt. You don't have to answer out loud, Naruto, but what were you thinking the day you failed the academy graduation exam?"

"I… was thinking about the best way to kill myself, just in case I really wanted to," Naruto answered nevertheless. "I didn't decide if I wanted to before Mizuki showed up though. I probably wouldn't have made up my mind until that night."

"And what happened that night instead?"

"I found out why things were the way they were, and… you gave me back my reason to live."

"So, for some of us, there is a happy ending. With someone's help, we dig up the root of the hurt. We find out why we act the way we do. We discover the connection between the past and the present. The mystery is finally solved. But there's one last thing you have to do if you want your hurt resolved, and it sounds like you did it last night."

"But… I didn't do anything except go to sleep."

"You accepted what he said, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Then you have one last thing to do. It's always your responsibility, no matter the circumstances. Forgive him."

Naruto stared at Iruka in uncertainty for a minute. "How?"

"Well, it's not usually a good idea to do it face to face. That can make you look arrogant or be taken as a put-down if you start listing faults and incidents. I want you to try something that I first had to do for you many years ago myself. Grab another chair and set it next to yours so that they're facing each other." Iruka waited while Naruto set up the chair. "Now, imagine Kiba is sitting across from you. Think of all the things he did to hurt you. Disclose them. Don't hold back any feelings, and don't rush the confession. Then, admit he's forgiven, once and for all."

After a moment of silence, Naruto realized Iruka had finished talking. "…Huh? Right now?"

"Of course."

"OK… so… what do I say?"

"I just told you."

"I know, but… like…"

"I didn't mean disclose every single scuffle or disagreement, just the times you were really hurt. Do you remember any?"

"Yes… being around here again brought back some memories."

"Then, go ahead."

Naruto stared at the empty chair. "Kiba…" he began, then looked back at Iruka. "This is weird."

"I know. Just trust me."

"But…"

"Why say it?"

"Yeah."

"It's too easy to fool yourself otherwise. When you say something, you're taking your thoughts and making them reality. It's the same as any other thing you do; your thought only remains a consideration until you act on it. Then, you'll find out if you really believe what you say. You should know from experience. If I remember correctly, you did a lot threatening, promise-making and trash-talking as a new genin. Yet you always followed through with what you said, no matter the cost. That was your way of the ninja, right?"

Naruto gave a resolute nod. 'Yeah… I get it now.'

"Now, remember my example about the other teacher? There's a reason we can't get him to admit he's forgiven his father. He never has, and he'll be lying if he said he did. He won't confront it, and he keeps denying the need to do so. He's walking the path of constant defeat. You've come much farther than him already. Keep up your way of the ninja, and complete the process."

"OK, then…" Naruto took a deep breath and looked at the empty chair once again. "Kiba… I remember the first time you drew your attention toward me. The second week of my first year in Iruka's class, when he was late and we were waiting outside the classroom door. Somewhere in the short time we'd been in class together, you seemed to have picked up on the way people were supposed to treat me, and decided it was time to take your turn. 'Hey look, it's it!' was the announcement you made as I approached. Yeah, nice wordplay. I'll bet you thought you were pretty clever. I guess the rest of the class agreed. It didn't take you long to rile them up and lead them on in your little 'it's it!' chant. I'd already been snubbed a few times individually, but that was the first time the whole class turned on me and left me with nothing to do but stand there and take it… thanks to you. That was the day I realized this place wouldn't be any different from any I'd been in before," Naruto felt his chest tighten and hands tremble as he recalled the events long since passed.

"It seems like you had a good time doing that. After all, you stayed pretty consistent with your teases, and you did a good job getting others to join in, or at least watch. It wasn't always the little things that bothered me… dumping salt in my drinks, rubbing my hair with burrs, or gluing up my seat… but some of the more personal stuff did hurt. Your little pop quizzes weren't very amusing. 'Would you rather dive into a swimming pool of razor blades or have your next project with Naruto?'… 'Would you rather marry Naruto or eat Akamaru's crap?'… Of course, you had the best answer for that one; marry me then kill me so you wouldn't have to eat it. You already gave me a fake apology once… telling me you wanted to make up for your teases and inviting me to one of the training grounds to try to teach me henge, only to bring some friends to laugh and pummel me with mud balls for being such a sucker." Iruka had moved behind Naruto and rested his hands on his shoulders as he spent the next few minutes facing his past hurts.

"But, most of all, the time I tried to join you and some classmates in a simple game of hide and seek during recess. You could have just said 'go away'. You really didn't have to spit at me. You should have known by now you were the kind of person other people would follow or imitate. I don't know if you planned for me to spend the rest of recess running around the little playground trying to act like I was having fun while being spit all over from every which way. When I snuck home after recess, sopping wet, was probably the lowest point in my life to that day. My biggest dreams couldn't even stand up to that. I just laid down and hoped I'd never get back up again. I didn't even wash until the next day, because, somehow, it felt like I'd earned that and now I had to dwell in it.

"But, Kiba… we eventually became decent comrades before I left, and just during the last two days, I can tell you're not the same obnoxious brat anymore. I believe you meant it when you said sorry. I accept your apology…" Naruto paused, took and deep breath and closed his eyes. "You're forgiven."

As soon as he said the words, Naruto felt shivers rush through his body and a burden he didn't realize was there lifted from his conscience. His eyes were glazed as he opened them, and he found his lips rising in a grin. 'It's gone,' he realized. 'All the spite for him I didn't even realize I had… it's just gone!' He found he couldn't stop his budding smile from engulfing his face.

"Haha," Naruto stood and turned at Iruka. "You were right. I don't feel like I need to hide anything from him or beware of him anymore, and I didn't even realize I felt like that in the first place. It really is freedom, this feeling."

Iruka smiled, glad at the rare opportunity to share his own greatest feeling with somebody who would follow through with his advice. "So, you can honestly say to his face he's free and forgiven?"

"Yes."

"Then, since he _did_ apologize to you individually, it may be a good idea to tell him you've accepted it."

"Alright… you know, I've been thinking all along, time was supposed to heal it all."

"Time doesn't heal all wounds. That's some of the worst advice I hear. If you can find a way to show that time passing or forgetting things helps accomplish what we did here, let me know."

"Uh… OK, I'll… probably not do that then."

"See that you don't. But Naruto, here's the thing in all of this. I know your harsh treatment wasn't just limited to Kiba, and won't ever stop completely. I also know that your dream to be Hokage in spite of that treatment remains strong, even if it's currently sidetracked by more imminent goals. What I want you to do is think over every single reason and source of motivation you have for accomplishing that goal, and see if any of them are to get back at people or prove a point to them. See, what you felt now with Kiba is just a sampling of what you could feel if you can ever bring yourself to forgive the village as a whole. It's only once you have no motivation for reprisal that you can know if your desire to do a fully selfless service is strong enough to act on. Remember, your only true success as a Hokage will be when acting for the good of others above your own. Letting go of personal quests is only small part of that; letting go of your life can be the biggest. What I'm trying to say is, you see where acting for vengeance or to prove a point got Sasuke. Do better." Naruto froze at the reference, then nodded. 'Point made,' Iruka thought.

"I will. I'll practice it, I'll master it and I'll show him by example."

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A reddening sky and growing dusk signaled the onset of late evening. A drained and exhausted Kiba landed with a thud on a hard patch of dirt. Akamaru was in front of him in an instant, ready to fend off his attacking teammates solo if need be.

"That'll be enough for today," Kurenai indicated the end of the spar, hopping down from her observatory spot in the trees and motioning her team to gather around. "I've arranged for a solo mission tomorrow, in order for you to be available to run your class. I should be back by tomorrow evening provided nothing goes wrong. Of course, we all know how often that happens. We'll plan on meeting the following morning; usual spot, usual time. If I'm not back, you have the day to yourselves. However, I recommend at least _some_ sparring, since today's was rather lackluster," she said with a glance at Kiba.

"Sorry, Kurenai-sensei," Hinata said. "I think we're just all a bit preoccupied with the class tomorrow."

"It's understandable. You're all stepping into a new role and a new phase of growth. I must admit, I'm proud that you're tackling this as a team. I was hoping you would do that without any inclination from me. Still, you've faced far more threatening situations, both present or upcoming, with greater focus than today."

"I believe my performance was up to par, Kurenai-sensei," Shino stated. "However, I must admit I was thrown off a bit by one particular lackluster performance."

Kiba gritted his teeth as he felt Shino's focus shift to him.

"Yes, it wasn't so much you two as it was you," Kurenai nodded at Kiba. "Is there something you'd like to share with us, Kiba?"

Kiba shook his head.

"I believe his new guest may be causing him some perplexities," Shino answered for Kiba.

"New guest?" Kurenai arched an eyebrow.

Hinata's curiosity was piqued as well. 'He did say he had an unexpected run-in with… could it be…?'

Kiba sent Shino his 'if looks could kill' look before answering Kurenai. "Yeah, uh… Naruto's gonna be around for a while and somehow the dolt forgot his old place wasn't his anymore and I saw him at lunch yesterday and he had nowhere to stay for a while, so uh… y'know," he finished with a shrug, waiting for replies but getting only amused looks from Shino and Kurenai, then noticing Hinata pressing her hands together and staring at the ground. "And yes, you can come by some time Hinata," he added, grinning as her face turned red.

"I see," Kurenai interjected. "If you don't want to share, then I'll leave you to your private affairs. But see that you two get properly situated and comfortable with each other as soon as possible. You've all got important things coming up and it's preferable to keep unnecessary distractions from interrupting. Also, Kiba, if you change your mind or find that you _do_ need people to discuss anything with, please let us know, alright?"

Kiba nodded.

"OK then, team dismissed!" Kurenai watched her team begin to part ways. "However, Kiba, I believe you have some unfinished business with me," she called after him and began walking into a forested area away from Shino and Hinata. Kiba turned around and jogged to catch up with her. They walked a short distance until they were beyond their teammates' hearing range. "Tell me the truth," she said.

Kiba shrugged. "I wish I knew."

"I know you don't usually open your house to guests, except the occasional teammate, for which I'm always grateful. I realize your house hasn't been a home in the full sense of the word for a while now, so why did you invite him, of all people, to stay in it with you?"

"Intrigue, I guess."

"Intrigue? That doesn't sound like you at all. Intrigue over what?"

"Well, at first, I suppose it was pity. Ino called him in for lunch yesterday and he looked kinda worn out, which was unusual for him, especially since he was his usual loud, hyper and stupid self earlier that day. When we were about to leave, he said he needed a place to stay until he could arrange one of his own. If there's one thing Hinata pounded into me whenever she talked about him, it was feeling guilty for blowing him off so much the last time he was around here. But, that wasn't really it. He makes me feel something, familiar, but I don't know what or why, and I can't shake it and I know it won't go away until I figure it out. It started when he was talking about some things on his road trip the last three years, some of his training in particular, then he thrashed me at one of Ino's stupid games and for the first time I didn't feel like getting him back or showing him up some other way. I felt in admiration of his raw strength, like I've only felt for _him_ before. When he did show up last night, I still wanted to get him in and out as fast as possible, but instead we ended up having a really long talk about our lives, growing up and all that. He told me about growing up alone all the time. I told him about growing up in a family and all that happened with dad. We talked some more, then I finally told him I was sorry about the way I acted in academy and that he could stay as long as he needed. I don't know why I opened up like that to him. I told him it was just a fresh start, kind of an experiment in trust to see if I get burned, but there's more to it than that. You know, I spent over three years without seeing what Hinata was always talking about when she praised him, and now I finally got a glimpse. It's like I never even knew him in the first place. I wanna find out what he's really like, but I still don't know _why him_ of all people!" Kiba kicked a rock off the dirt pathway into a nearby bush.

'I have an idea,' Kurenai thought, 'but, I'll need to see a little more progress in your relationship before knowing for sure. I'll leave you to figure it out and see if we come to the same conclusion. In the meantime…' Kurenai nodded her head and cleared her throat. "First off, I'm glad to hear you're opening up again. It's good to have somebody beyond the scope of our immediate team with whom you can share those kinds of things. I know you didn't consider it a requirement to share what you did with us, but no doubt the necessity of relating like immediate relatives on important issues lingers over all of us as a team. It seems to me like the start of a promising relationship. You've overcome some of your former shortsightedness and shown a fair level of compassion and maturity in what you've done so far. It sounds like this is the first time you've had this kind of relationship, though I suppose that's mainly because you never had an opportunity for it before last year. It's always distressful going into new territory, but what I'm seeing so far is a lot of growth in the way you've handled things compared to the way you would have handled them in years past, and as your team leader, it's very gratifying for me. You seem mystified at discovering Naruto's true personality, but I must say, you're turning out to be quite a new person as well, and if Naruto is the trigger for this, I suggest keeping up with your relationship. If you don't mind me asking, what did he say to your apology?"

"Um… nothing, I split before he fully processed it."

"I see. Where is he staying? I know your downstairs isn't suited for guests, your sister would put your head on display above the front gate if she found out you lent him her room, and even you wouldn't put him with the dogs."

"Heh, nah… he's in dad's old room."

"What!" Kurenai didn't bother to hide her surprise at that response.

"Yeah, that's the reason I wanted to get him out as fast as possible. But now, I don't really worry about it anymore. He just seems like somebody I can trust now. It could be because I haven't seen him for three years and I just haven't found a reason to distrust him."

"And I hope you won't. In my experience, he may not be the brightest or most talented, but he's definitely capable of keeping a secret. I think your trust is well placed."

"Yeah… I guess we'll see."

"One last thing, Kiba; is there any particular reason you were hesitant to share with the whole team?"

"I just don't know what to say. The whole thing's confusing and I want to get it at least partially figured out first. You guys have become my second family, believe me there's no way I'd keep anything this big from you. I'll tell it all when I'm ready, I just need to give it some more time, OK?"

"Take as much as you need, just don't let things get to the point that you'll repeat today's performance in an important mission. I'm only trying to look out for your safety."

"I know, I know… I'll keep you up to speed for sure, just… keep all this private until I decide to tell Shino and Hinata myself, huh? Those are the last two I need getting any wrong impressions, not to mention Shino's digging a little deep anyway."

Kurenai nodded. "As you wish. I'll leave it to your judgment."

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Night had fallen on yet another hard day of relationships, opportunities, tests and training. Kiba stepped into his foyer, locked the door behind him, kicked off his sandals into the closet on his right and tossed his over-shirt into the closet on his left. He took a deep breath, stepped up into the hallway and turned left into his living room to be greeted with Naruto standing in the center, bearing what Kiba considered to be the stupidest grin he had ever seen on that face. 'Oh no, just what I need,' he grimaced. "What?"

Naruto kept grinning.

Kiba looked around the room, then behind himself. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he asked again, "what!"

Naruto's grin persisted.

Kiba then inspected himself, looking for anything out of place, any rips in his outfit, an unzipped fly, or any signs that might have been mysteriously placed on his back. He fluffed his hair in case any debris had landed in it and rubbed his face in case any dinner leftovers were somewhere on it. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he asked once again, "WHAT?"

This time, Naruto giggled a bit.

Kiba clenched his fists at his side and fumed silently at Naruto before giving the living room a more thorough inspection. Naruto began to laugh as he check shelf contents, searched through drawers and looked for anything that was supposed to be there that wasn't or anything that wasn't supposed to be there that was.

Kiba slammed a drawer shut. "If you don't wipe that stupid smile off your face, there's going to be a gaping hole where the bottom half of your face is supposed to be!"

Naruto clutched his stomach as he began laughing harder.

'What. The. Hell.' Kiba seethed. 'Damn it, what did he do!'

Naruto fell to the ground as Kiba began a paranoid search through the first floor of his house, looking through every compartment, searching every drawer, checking behind every door, and overturning every piece of furniture, leaving no surface unscrutinized and checking to see that everything still worked the way it should. He was about to move onto the second floor when Naruto called out from between laughs.

"Kiba, stop it!" Naruto got up, still giggling at Kiba's hysteric antics.

Kiba stormed over to Naruto. "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO." he growled through gritted teeth.

"Kiba, relax!" Naruto became relatively serious and put his hands on Kiba's shoulders to steady him. "I didn't do anything. At least, not like you think. It's about last night."

"Huh?" Kiba's frustration subsided in an instant.

Naruto grinned once again. "Apology accepted. Everything's cool."

'_That_… was why he was so happy…?' Before Kiba could process the revelation and feel properly embarrassed, he found himself lifted off the ground, wrapped in a crushing hug from Naruto. 'Urf, not another one of these…' Kiba flexed back to little avail. After a bit of kicking and jabbing, he got Naruto's attention with a head butt.

"Hey, I'm being all friendly here! What kind of display of affection is that?" Naruto sulked.

"Jeez, Naruto!" Kiba shook himself out. "You hug like a girl. Don't you know how guys are supposed to hug?"

Naruto gave Kiba a quizzical look.

"Guess not. Here, it goes like this. First, you grab hands with the other guy. It can be a one-handed cross like a handshake, or you can match both hands. Then you pull back and bump chests. It helps if you inhale first. If it's _really_ intimate, you can put an arm around the neck, but one arm only. Here, try it." Kiba grabbed Naruto's hands and led him through a practice round. "Good, you've got the motion down. Now do it like you really mean it." They pulled forward at the same time, took a deep breath and slammed their chests together with a resounding THUD! "There, now you've got it. I would think you'd have learned that with that pervert teacher of yours."

"Uh… he really only knows about girls. Guys aren't his thing. At least that's what he says."

"Heh, you caught him scooping out some guys too?"

"Well, no, not really… but, he made me do some goofy stuff for descriptions for his stupid book."

"Oh?" Kiba cocked an eyebrow. "You forgot to mention _that_ in your trip description yesterday."

"Cause, it wasn't really a big deal. He didn't set me up with other people, he just asked me to some weird flexes and poses for some muscle stuff."

"Mm-hmm," Kiba nodded. "How much did he rent you out for?"

Naruto furrowed his brows. "Kiba…"

"Were there bulk rates or extended use deals?"

"Kiba!"

"How about frequent customer discounts?"

"KIBA!"

"Well hey, you've obviously got some money and I didn't hear anything about missions. I'm just doing some educated guesswork here," Kiba held out his hands to feign innocence.

"For your information, we _did_ do some missions, but _those_ were _seriously_ top-secret and even I know better than to blab about them."

"Alright, alright. Chill." Kiba headed for the staircase. "Look, training was a bitch today. I'm pooped and heading for bed. You coming up soon too?"

"Yeah, soon. I wanna finish reading this scroll on drills I got from the old hag."

"Old hag? What old hag?"

"Er… Tsunade-baba."

"The… Fifth! You just called the Fifth an old hag? Can't she have you executed for that?"

"Uh… I don't think so. At least, she hasn't done it yet. I doubt she ever will… I think… I hope."

"For once, I'm glad your stupidity is so exhausting. I'm going to sleep."

_Two hours later:_

Kiba awoke to a blaring buzz emanating from downstairs. 'Crap, fire!' He rolled out of bed and ran down to find Naruto throwing a glass of water on top of the oven.

"Ehe", Naruto grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, "sorry, all the time we spent traveling, we just ate the stuff that grew outside so I never learned how to cook anything. This is all foreign to me."

Kiba groaned, turned off the smoke alarm and threw away the burnt food. "Here, have this, " he took an old frozen meal from the fridge and handed it to Naruto, who downed the plate in a few large slurps. "What are you still doing up?"

"Umm… I couldn't really sleep." Naruto tossed the plate into the sink. "I'm not really nervous, I'm just kinda anxious. I mean, I've been in some big fights and all, but this is totally different."

'Trouble sleeping… No, I couldn't… I shouldn't… this has waaay too much potential for blackmail… yeah I was gonna trust him, but… this much… bah!' Impatience kept Kiba from conceiving the excuses he desired. "Here, come with me." He led Naruto back to his room. "Get in bed." When he was situated, Kiba spoke. "Now, if you tell anybody about this, I'll kill you all. My sister used to do this for me when I was younger and couldn't sleep. You need to have a good imagination though…" Kiba eyed Naruto suspiciously, then remembered how he never shut up about being the Hokage. "Alright, close your eyes. You're sitting in the middle of a circle of soft green cushions arranged like flower…"

"Eh?" Naruto looked confusedly at Kiba.

"I said imagination, you dolt!" Kiba smacked Naruto on the head.

"Oh, ehe, right."

"Like I was saying, you're sitting on your cushions atop a short tan marble pillar in the middle of an ocean with tors randomly scattered around your seat. The path…"

"Tors?" Naruto interrupted again.

"Yes, Naruto, tors. Small hills with green stuff growing on top of them."

"Where would you learn a word like 'tors'?"

"Everyday conversation, Naruto. I talk to people and they talk to me. Is that a problem?"

"No, it's just, first you can cook, and now you know words like 'tors'."

'Why is his brain suddenly active now?' Kiba groaned. "Maybe I should just beat you unconscious."

Naruto sat upright and crossed his arms. "Try."

'Bah…' Kiba settled for shoving Naruto's head back into the pillow before continuing in a decreasingly slow pace. "_Like I was saying_… the path you came out on zigzags back to a shoreline you can no longer see. Five clear glass pillars rise out of the ocean and bend to form an elaborate centerpiece high above your seat. You're looking ahead, out into the ocean. The water is crystal clear and seems to be radiating a bright azure light. You can hear small splashes as the little waves slap up against your pillar and the nearby _tors_. The distant water fades into a horizon shining with white light, and the skyline above it turns from bright blue to dark blue to clear, revealing large planets of every color orbiting above, scattered amongst an abundance of tiny white stars. The horizon light illuminates the water and bursts into brilliant patterns shining every direction as it reaches the glass gazebo around and above you. It sends rays of warmth washing over you and causes the ocean top to evaporate into a slight a mist carried by a cool breeze which tingles your skin and sends shivers of pleasure down your spine. You lay back in ecstasy, closing your eyes but not entirely shutting out the brilliant blues. Now it's just you in your state of bliss. You focus on the soothing sounds of the water… the warmth of the light… the tingle of the mist… and the drift of the breeze. Everything's peaceful. You can sleep now."

Naruto's eyes were closed and his breathing barely noticeable. "Naruto?" Kiba whispered. No response. 'Easy as one-two-three. Maybe I could just count him to sleep next time.' He stared at Naruto as he lay still. 'He almost looks peaceful when he's not causing a ruckus,' he observed. "Sleep well, ya dolt. You're in for a beat down tomorrow. Wouldn't want to deliver it to you in any other condition than your best." With that, he dragged himself off Naruto's bed and staggered into his own room to continue his previously peaceful night's sleep.

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Author's note:

_Hey look, that's 3 notes in 2 chapters. So much for "one-time-only", eh?_

_Anyway, I feel it necessary to point out that the next update will probably take at least as long as this one. Between the time I wrote the note at the beginning of this chapter (after I got all my stuff moved) and now, I've been rammed up the cram hole with security deposits, service transfer fees, first-time install charges and all the other "hi welcome to our service we're glad to have you but since you're new we don't trust you so give us some first-time stipulation in the form of much money" fees that come with moving. All of this means I'm going to have to work some crazy overtime the next month to get all these charges paid for. I guess I picked a bad time to publish, didn't I?_

_Oh well._

_As long as I'm here, I should make another comment. Long story short, I heard from a Christian guy a while ago who was talking about the subject of free will, the existence of suffering and fear vs. grace as varying methods of rule available for God to use. Short story even shorter, I found the concept of virtue intriguing and thought it could make a nice sub-plot. When I said I liked the ingenuity in the earlier years of the Naruto manga so much, one of the things I had in mind was the "underneath the underneath" theme which appeared in Kakashi's and Ibiki's exams, so one of the things I wanted to add back was the multi-layered tests. I realize some of the dialogue goes into Matrix Reloaded proportions, but I swear I took no influence from the Merovingian or any of its other long-winded characters. Rather, the orphanage example was one given by the aforementioned Christian, and while my first thought was to come up with an alternate but similar example for originality's sake, I ended up deciding his example would be most relevant to the characters herein so I paraphrased it as best as I could recall._

_Also on the subject of inspiration, the "talk to the empty chair" was a bit of general advice I heard from a relationships counselor I've been familiar with for a few years. It's good advice, I recommend it._


End file.
